Ker-Xavier Roussel

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From left: Ker-Xavier Roussel , Édouard Vuillard, Romain Coolus and Félix Vallotton in 1899

Ker-Xavier Roussel (born December 10, 1867 in Lorry-lès-Metz , Moselle department , † June 5, 1944 in L'Étang-la-Ville , Yvelines department ) was a French painter who belonged to the Nabis artist group.

life and work

Roussel came from a wealthy Parisian medical family. At the Lycée Condorcet he met his classmates Édouard Vuillard , Maurice Denis and Lugné-Poe , with whom he was to become a lifelong friend. At the age of 20 he joined Léon Diogène Maillard's studio.

Roussel, Vuillard and Denis continued their studies from 1888 to 1890 at the School of Fine Arts in Paris, where they met Pierre Bonnard . Roussel and Vuillard joined the artist group Les Nabis in 1889 . Two years later, Roussel exhibited the Nabis for the first time at the gallery of Le Barc de Boutteville.

In 1893 Roussel married Marie Vuillard. Their daughter Annete later became the wife of the painter Jacques Salomon (1885–1965). Roussel's first lithographs appeared in the magazine “ La Revue blanche ”. In 1899 he left Paris and settled in L'Étang-la-Ville. In the same year he toured Italy with Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard; together they drove to Lake Como, Venice and Milan. In 1906 Roussel went on a trip to the Mediterranean coast with Maurice Denis . The two friends visited Paul Cézanne in Aix-en-Provence and Paul Signac in Saint-Tropez .

In 1908 the Académie Ranson was founded, at which Roussel, Vuillard, Paul Sérusier , Aristide Maillol and Félix Vallotton taught as professors. 1911 to 1913 Roussel dealt with the decoration of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and designed its curtain. He stayed in Switzerland during the First World War. In the stairwell of the Kunstmuseum in Winterthur , he executed two scenes with mythological motifs in the arches of the staircase.

In 1926 Roussel was honored with the Carnegie Prize , awarded by the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh , USA. In 1937 Roussel worked with Vuillard and Bonnard for the Théâtre national de Chaillot in Paris. In 1938 he designed a decoration for the League of Nations Palace in Geneva.

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