Could it be that an unexpected Nabi legacy can be found in the work of today’s contemporary painters? Attempting to trace such genealogies of influence is an ambitious task, as artists have always looked toward their predecessors for inspiration. Many also share a collective sensibility drawn from the zeitgeist of their time. Today, however, an intriguing thread connects numerous painters to the concerns of the Nabis (Hebrew for ‘prophets’) – figures like Paul Sérusier, Maurice Denis, Paul-Élie Ranson, Pierre Bonnard, and Ker-Xavier Roussel – who formed their movement in 1888 under a moniker that was at once enigmatic and mischievous.

The Nabis initially came together around a heated dispute with their fellow students at the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. At the heart of the debate was Landscape at the Bois d’Amour, a small wood-panel study painted by Sérusier during the summer of 1888 in Pont-Aven, Brittany. Guided by Paul Gauguin, Sérusier created a work that distilled sensation into simplified forms and bold planes of pure color. Known as The Talisman, the painting became a symbol of the Nabis’ new artistic philosophy. Their vision – referred to as ‘synthetic’ – drew inspiration from the Japanese prints that were in vogue at the time, the modernity of Édouard Manet, and the dreamlike aesthetics of Symbolism, while also prefiguring Fauvism, abstraction, and expressionism.

Though the Nabis shared common ideals, each cultivated a distinct artistic identity. Some were drawn toward mysticism (Sérusier, Denis, Ranson), while others explored intimate domestic scenes (Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Félix Vallotton). These dual tendencies find echoes today in the works of Peter Doig (b. 1959) and Nathanaëlle Herbelin (b. 1989), both of whom recently exhibited at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Herbelin, in particular, has openly cited her admiration for Bonnard. Her painting Emmanuelle and Efi (2024) recalls his Woman with a Cat (1912), not only in its depiction of timeless intimacy but also through its chromatic palette and subtle brushwork.

The universality of Herbelin’s depictions, infused with her distinctly female gaze, resonates with the work of Brazilian artist Paula Siebra (b. 1998). Siebra transforms everyday objects – a table, a water fountain, a bed – into poetic subjects. By employing flattened perspectives, characteristic of the Nabis, she encourages viewers to reconsider these objects as more than functional items. Her earthy palette, which she describes as reflecting ‘the colors of memory,’ enhances the quiet intimacy of her compositions, transforming them into portraits of ordinary beauty.

Scottish artist Andrew Cranston (b. 1969) embodies Gauguin’s advice to surrender to sensation and translate it into color. His Waiting for the Bell (2021), in which a woman strolls through a garden saturated in magenta, evokes Vuillard’s layered, decorative superimposed patterns. Cranson, like Vuillard, frequently uses distemper, a technique that allows for textured, dreamlike surfaces. This approach also defines the work of Arisa Yoshioka (b. 2000), whose suggestive realism blends the actual and the imagined. In When I Was Fifteen (2023-2024), memory becomes the central theme, aligning the artist with many of the painters discussed here. Yoshioka also paints on found objects, such as a vintage lamp that becomes a poetic artifact in True Love Will Find You in the End (2024). This recalls the Nabis’ expansion into the decorative arts, including theater sets, posters, and tapestries.

Marie-Claire Mitout (b. 1961) places time at the heart of her practice. Since 1990, each day she has painted The trace of the best moment of the previous day on A4 paper. These meticulously crafted gouache self-portraits reveal a philosophy of introspection and spirituality akin to Bonnard’s. The first piece in the series, Je suis malade, La Burie, 03 septembre 1990, depicts the artist asleep, surrounded by books – a reflection of her inner world that recalls Odilon Redon’s Closed Eyes (1890). The influence of Redon is similarly evident in the Symbolist-inspired works of Ernst Yohji Jaeger (b. 1990), whose androgynous figures draw from both manga aesthetics and the ethereal portraits of the Finnish artist Helene Schjerfbeck, who visited Pont-Aven in the 1880s.

The theme of sleep also dominates the work of Anas Albraehe (b. 1991), who began his career in Syria with portraits of peasant women in the series ‘Mother Earth’ (2019–20) and exhausted refugees in ‘The Dream Catcher’ (2018). Over time, the blankets that enveloped his subjects became increasingly abstract, transforming into mountain-like landscapes in the series ‘The Turn’ (2024). These compositions, in which sleepers merge with nature, echo the layered color planes of Charles Filiger’s Rocky Landscape, Le Pouldu (1891).

Dreams take a mythical turn in the nocturnal scenes of Gideon Appah (b. 1987). His large-scale works, featuring verdant blue-green figures, draw on childhood memories, archival press clippings, and mythologies from his native Ghana. French painter Romain Bernini (b. 1979) shares this ritualistic sensibility. His ‘Cargo Cult’ series (2008–18), with its masked figures and vibrant abstract backgrounds, explores the shamanic traditions of contemporary societies, invoking the mysticism of Gauguin and Ranson.

Tim Breuer (b. 1990), a former student of Doig, works with such densely painted backgrounds that his figures – whether youthful or ambiguous – seem to dissolve into them. His deep blues and shadowy blacks destabilize spatial perception, while Henry Curchod (b. 1992) disrupts gravity with his use of audacious perspectives. In works like Dorrigo Blue (2023), he blends Vuillard’s decorative exuberance with Bonnard’s iridescent palettes, creating compositions that nod to Vallotton’s The Ball (1899).

Meanwhile, Marcella Barceló (b. 1992) draws inspiration from Japanese ukiyo-e and her childhood in Mallorca. Her spectral adolescent figures, often set in fleeting forest scenes, echo Maurice Denis’s allegorical woodlands while embracing the Japanese concept of mono no aware – the beauty of impermanence. Among the Nabis, female artists were notably absent, save for the behind-the-scenes contributions of France Ranson and Lazarine Baudrion.

Barceló’s work, therefore, poignantly reclaims their legacy. Bridging the traditions of Redon, Doig, and Bernini, her art exemplifies how shared aspirations transcend time. Perhaps, in the end, the zeitgeist is less a product of its moment than a never-ending return – an ongoing rediscovery of color, dreams, and the fleeting beauty of life itself.