Arcadia
Roussel took inspiration from antiquity for his prints, in which he presented the mythical land of Arcadia, drawing on classical authors. This flight into the imagination and his quest for the ideal made him a Symbolist artist. He created an idyllic dream world, populated with nymphs and fauns.
Ker-Xavier Roussel, Eurydice Bitten by a Snake (Eurydice piquée par un serpent), 1935
Ker-Xavier Roussel, The Little Cave (Le petit antre), 1935
Ker-Xavier Roussel, Women in the Countryside (Femmes dans la campagne), 1900
Colours and tones
Unlike the classical subject matter he chose, the style of Roussel’s prints was very modern. He almost never used lines, with the result that his colour lithographs seem almost abstract. The critic André Mellerio noted as early as 1898 that Roussel’s progressive use of colour made him a talented printmaker:
‘We see a delicate understanding of tones, a clear and very personal way of using a fresh range of colours applied in small strokes which mix with the white of the paper to give a great luminosity.’
Further reading
- Gloria Groom et al., Ker-Xavier Roussel 1867-1944. Le Nabi bucolique, Paris 2011
- Isabelle Cahn, Mathias Chivot en Valérie Reis, Ker-Xavier Roussel. Jardin privé, jardin rêvé, Giverny 2019
- Robert Theodore Wang, The Graphic Art of the Nabis, 1888-1900,
Pittsburgh 1974