Salon · 1889-1890s
Paul Ranson's studio, the Nabis' “Temple”
Address · 25, boulevard du Montparnasse, 75006 Paris
Metro · Montparnasse – Bienvenüe (4, 6, 12, 13) / Duroc (10, 13)
Today · Private, seen from the street. Residential building, seen from the street.
The story
Paul Ranson (1861-1909) and his wife France moved to 25, boulevard du Montparnasse in 1889. The studio quickly became the weekly meeting place of the Nabis, a group of young painters from the Académie Julian who called themselves “prophets” in Hebrew. They called it the “Temple”, and Ranson acted as host and master of ceremonies. The studio was decorated by the painters themselves. Esoteric texts were also read there.
Churton recalls that on Saturdays they discussed the ideas of Sérusier, back from Brittany where he had painted under Gauguin's guidance, and that Maurice Denis drew from them his famous 1890 text on painting as a flat surface covered with colors. The Nabis were interested in theosophy, in Schuré's Les Grands Initiés and in religious symbolism; several gave themselves nicknames and wore brotherhood garb. Ranson, himself passionate about occultism, painted witches and symbolic scenes.
Ranson later founded the academy that bears his name. The building on boulevard du Montparnasse is private; Churton publishes a photograph of it. The place shows how esoteric ideas also circulated among avant-garde painters, outside occultist circles proper. Several Nabis later exhibited at the Salon de la Rose+Croix, and exchanges between these circles were frequent. In the 20th century Montparnasse would become the great center of artistic life in Paris.
To be checked · The street number comes from a museum source (Yvelines department), not from the book. Coordinates estimated.