...pictorially documents the group of popular artists of the time. "Although Les Nabis as a group had started to go their own ways around 1899 this painting by Maurice Denis entitled Homage to Cézanne was not completed until 1901. It is a large work of art measuring 180 x 240 cm which makes the figures almost life-sized. The setting for the work is the shop belonging to the art dealer Ambroise Vollard, which was in the Rue Laffitte, a street in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Les Nabis artists used to meet regularly at the home of one of their group, Paul Ranson and talk about their art and this painting was a reminder of those get-togethers. In the background, hanging on the rear wall we can just make out works by Renoir and Gaugin. This pictorial recorded meeting was to celebrate Paul Cézanne and on the easel in the centre of the painting is his 1880 still-life work Fruit Bowl, Glass and Apples. The presence of this painting was another reminder of Paul Gaugin who owned the work but was not present as he had six years earlier set off for a new life in Martinique and Tahiti. Gaugin had been a great fan of Cézanne describing him as: “… an exceptional pearl, the apple of my eye…” The gathered artists along with some art critics and art dealers are all dressed in black suits, which is strange attire for such a gathering of the avant-garde Nabis. On the far left is Paul Sérusier, the leader of Les Nabis who is in conversation with the bearded painter Odilon Redon. At the back on the left we have the painter Jean-Édouard Vuillard. Behind him wearing a top hat is André Mellerio, a French art critic who endorsed the cause of Symbolism and was the biographer, and great friend of Odilon Redon. Behind the easel to the right of Mellerio, and seen holding the easel’s upright, is the art dealer and host, Ambroise Vollard. Further to the right is Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Ker-Xavier Roussel and on the far right with pipe in hand, Pierre Bonnard. It is also interesting to note that Maurice Denis included his wife, Marthe in the painting, whom we see in the right background. https://mydailyartdisplay.wordpress.com/2016/04/02/maurice-denis-part-1-les-nabis/