Self-portrait, face study

1877–1885

Meets the future Nabis at the lycée

Studying on a scholarship at the Lycée Fontaine (renamed Condorcet in 1883), he meets Ker-Xavier Roussel, his future brother-in-law, Maurice Denis, the writer Pierre Véber and the future theatre director Aurélien Lugné-Poe.

1885

Chooses painting over a military career

On leaving the lycée in November 1885 he gives up the idea of following his father into the military and sets out to become an artist; with Roussel he learns the rudiments of painting in the studio of Diogène Maillart, the former studio of Eugène Delacroix on Place Fürstenberg.

1886–1927 · Virkested

Paris

1890

Joins the Nabis

He begins attending the meetings of the “prophets” in late 1889 and in 1890, through Maurice Denis, becomes a member of the group, which met in Paul Ranson’s studio and in the cafés of the Passage Brady; because of his military service he is given the coded nickname “Nabi Zouave”. Other accounts date his membership from 1891.

early 1890s

The Natanson brothers and La Revue Blanche

Through his theatre work he meets Alexandre and Thadée Natanson, founders of the cultural review La Revue Blanche, where his graphics appear alongside work by Bonnard, Toulouse-Lautrec and Vallotton; the brothers become his important patrons. Other accounts say they had known each other since the Lycée Condorcet.

1891

First exhibition with the Nabis at Saint-Germain-en-Laye

At the château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye he shows two paintings, among them “The Woman in a Striped Dress”; the reviews are largely good, although the critic of Le Chat Noir (19 September 1891) finds the works still indecisive.