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Updated 14 April 2025

On Display Permanent collection

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On Display

Permanent collection

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Ker-Xavier Roussel

Lorry-les-Metz (Moselle), 1867 - L'Étang-la-Ville, 1944

The Virgin Mary on a Path

Date ca. 1890-1892
Materials and Techniques oil on canvas
Size(cm) 54 x 37
Inscriptions Stamped initials lower right: kxr
Category Paintings
Collection Number P.2018-0002

This painting by the Nabi school artist Roussel ably conveys his early experiments with form. The woman's ambiguous face and thin arms extending from a stiff, flattened body evoke a religious sensibility reminiscent of medieval saint imagery. The slender female and S-shaped path were motifs favored by Roussel's Nabi friend Maurice Denis. The background made up of brown and green-toned color planes resembles the scenes of Brittany painted by Gauguin and the Pont-Aven school. While he referred to the works of Denis, Gauguin and others, here Roussel reveals his own unique creativity by using the geometric form of the woman's garment to stabilize the composition. (Source: Gallery label, August 2020)

Provenance

Jacques Roussel, artist's grand-son; his sale, Enghien, 13 April 1986, no. 25; private collection, France, acquired at the above sale; purchased by NMWA, 23 July 2018.

Exhibition History

1944
K-X Roussel, Galerie Maratier, Paris, 0  1944 - 0  1944, no. 160.
1964
K-X Roussel, Gallery Wildenstein, London, 0  1964 - 0  1964, no. 1, repr.
1965
Ker-Xavier Roussel, Kunsthalle Bremen, 26 September 1965 - 21 November 1965, cat. no. 9.
1968
Vuillard-Roussel, Haus der Kunst Munich, Munich, 16 March 1968 - 12 May 1968, Orangerie des Tuileries, 16 May-16 September 1968, no. 206, repr.
1972
French Symbolist Painters: Moreau, Puvis de Chavannes, Redon and Their Followers, Hayward Gallery, London, 7 June 1972 - 23 July 1972, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 9 August-17 September 1972, no. 305, repr.
1972
El Simbolismo en la Pintura Francesa, Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Barcelona, 0 October 1972 - 0 November 1972, no. 243, repr.
1990
Gauguin et les Nabis, Parthenon Tama, Tokyo, 31 October 1990 - 2 December 1990, Niigata Daiwa, 2-15 January 1991; Navio Museum of Art, Osaka, 8 March-7 April; Simonoseki City Art Museum, 12 April-12 May, no. XIII-2, p. 94, repr.
1993
Die NABIS, Propheten der Moderne, Kunsthaus, Zürich, 28 May 1993 - 15 August 1998, no. 85, repr.
1993
NABIS 1888-1900, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 21 September 1993 - 3 January 1994, no. 85, repr.
2011
Ker-Xavier Roussel, 1867-1944: le Nabi bucolique, Musée de Pont-Aven, Pont-Aven, 0  2011 - 0  2011, no. 22, p. 9 (detail), p. 75, repr.

Bibliography

1972
Stump, Jeanne. The art of Ker-Xavier Roussel. Kansas, 1972, fig. 12, pp. 60-61.
1978
Mauner, George L. The Nabis: Their History and Their Art 1888-1896. New York, 1978, p. 228.
1979
Monneret, Sophie. L'Impressionnisme et son époque. vol. 2, Paris, Denoël, 1979, p. 218.
1982
Götte, Gisela. Ker-Xavier Roussel, Untersuchungen zu seiner Entwicklung vor allem zum Verhältnis Frühwerk-Spätwerk. Brême, 1982, pp. 164-168.
1990
Freches-Thory, Claire; Terrasse, Antoine. Les Nabis. Paris, 1990, p. 70, repr.
2002
Jeancolas, Claude. La peinture des Nabis. Paris, 2002, p. 166, repr.
2020
Annual Bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. No. 53 (Apr. 2018-Mar. 2019), 2020, Hakamata, Hiroyo. New Acquisitions. pp. 13-15, List of New Acquisitions. p. 22, col. repr.

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