Seascape

Ker-Xavier Roussel was a central figure in the Nabis, a group of predominantly French artists who formed a secret brotherhood in Paris in 1888-9. Their work was indebted to Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) and can be characterized by flat planes of color, often outlined in dark contours. This oil study of a seascape, which is signed at the lower left corner, probably dates to Roussel's later career, when he abandoned the Nabis style and reverted to Neo-Impressionism. The composition was likely painted en plein air.