1867 -1944 · Paris, Nabis, L'Étang-la-Ville, Mediterranean and mythology

Gardens, nymphs and Mediterranean light make Ker-Xavier Roussel the Nabi painter of a sensual and dreamed Antiquity.

François-Xavier Roussel, known as Ker-Xavier Roussel, was born in 1867 in Lorry-lès-Metz. Based in Paris, he attended the Condorcet high school then the Académie Julian, where he met Édouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard and Paul Sérusier. He participated in the Nabis group, shared a workshop with Vuillard and married his sister Marie. Like his companions, Roussel rejected the naturalist illusion in favor of a surface organized by color and rhythm. However, his universe quickly stood out: the real nature of L'Étang-la-Ville or the South became the setting for ancient myths populated by nymphs, fauns, Venus and children. Mediterranean stays from the end of the 1890s clarify its palette and reinforce this orientation. Roussel also designs large decorations, panels and cardboard, adapting its composition to private or public architecture. The Seasons of Life brings together this decorative ambition: the passage of time is embodied in figures integrated into an ideal landscape. For him, the myth is not an archaeological reconstruction, but a way of revealing the desire, fertility and mystery of a contemporary garden. For him, the myth is not an archaeological reconstruction, but a way of revealing the desire, fertility and mystery of a contemporary garden. For him, the myth is not an archaeological reconstruction, but a way of revealing the desire, fertility and mystery of a contemporary garden. For him, the myth is not an archaeological reconstruction, but a way of revealing the desire, fertility and mystery of a contemporary garden. For him, the myth is not an archaeological reconstruction, but a way of revealing the desire, fertility and mystery of a contemporary garden. For him, the myth is not an archaeological reconstruction, but a way of revealing the desire, fertility and mystery of a contemporary garden. For him, the myth is not an archaeological reconstruction, but a way of revealing the desire, fertility and mystery of a contemporary garden. For him, the myth is not an archaeological reconstruction, but a way of revealing the desire, fertility and mystery of a contemporary garden. For him, the myth is not an archaeological reconstruction, but a way of revealing the desire, fertility and mystery of a contemporary garden.

Roussel transforms the familiar garden into Arcadia: the color is enough to bring out the myth among the trees.