
<p>This group of women and girls gathered in the Tuileries Garden, a public park in Paris, appear absorbed in their individual activities. Despite this lack of overt interaction, the compressed space gives the composition a sense of intimacy, which is reinforced by the figures’ loose-fitting dresses, a style typically worn in private. The color red punctuates the scene via the stripe on an omnibus in the background and the outfit of the little girl playing among the group.</p> <p>Ker-Xavier Roussel was a member of the Nabis, the generation of artists following Post-Impressionists like <a href="https://www.artic.edu/artists/40810/georges-seurat"> Georges Seurat</a>. Along with other Nabi artists—including his brother-in-law <a href="https://www.artic.edu/artists/27657/edouard-jean-vuillard"> Edouard Vuillard</a>—Roussel sought to portray the beauty and mystery in everyday life.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1888
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 73.1 × 107 cm (28 3/4 × 42 1/8 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Ker-Xavier Roussel
Artist

Painting
Ker-Xavier Roussel was a French painter and printmaker associated with the Nabis movement in late 19th-century Paris. Working primarily in oil, tempera, and lithography, he developed a decorative approach to landscape and domestic interior scenes characterized by soft color harmonies and flattened pictorial space. His compositions, often featuring intimate garden settings and figures in repose, balance Post-Impressionist brushwork with the symbolic restraint favored by his peers. Roussel exhibited regularly in Paris and maintained a studio practice spanning five decades until his death in 1944.
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More by Ker-Xavier Roussel
Pastoral (Pastorale) from Essai dur l'histoire de la lithographie en France. Les Peintures lithographes de Manet à Matisse. Album de lithographies originales.
1924 · Lithograph from a portfolio of 16 lithographs
Flowers
1904 · Oil on panel
Woman in Red in a Landscape, plate two from Landscapes
1898 · Lithograph in slate blue, blue, green, olive, and orange-red on grayish-ivory China paper
Women in the Country, plate six from Landscapes
1898 · Lithograph in yellow and blue on grayish-ivory China paper
Bathers, plate four from Landscapes
1898 · Lithograph in green, forest green, olive green, and gray-green on grayish-ivory China paper
Cupids Playing Near a Nymph, plate five from Landscapes
1898 · Lithograph in brown and gray-blue on grayish-ivory China paper
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Ker-Xavier Roussel
- Year
- 1888
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 73.1 × 107 cm (28 3/4 × 42 1/8 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1888-016564
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified





