Decorative Panels: Women in the Garden

1890–91

Distemper over carbon, crayon and chalk on paper, mounted on canvas; each panel 155 × 45 cm. Kunsthaus Zürich

Four tall, narrow panels show women walking and resting among garden leaves. Zurich's museum sees the set as his first major statement in the group's manner.

White dots cover one red dress and lilac checks another, lying flat across the folds. The Nabis took bold patterning like this partly from Japanese prints.
The panels were first conceived as one folding screen in four parts, then separated.
Look at the first panel, where a pale dog leaps up beside the walking woman.
The second panel stays largely unpainted, so its bare sketch lines show.
A Zurich art society donated it in 1984; the Musée d'Orsay holds a revised second version.

His younger sister Andrée appears in the second panel, and his cousin Berthe Schaedlin in the two figures shown from behind. The woman in the first panel has not been identified.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · PD-Art