Paul Sérusier was a french painter who was a pioneer of abstract art and an inspiration for the avant-garde Nabis movement. He studied at the Académie Julian and was a monitor there in the mid 1880s. In the summer of 1888 he traveled to Pont-Aven and joined the small group of artists centered there around Paul Gauguin 1848-1903. While at the Pont-Aven artist's colony he painted a picture that became known as The Talisman, under the close supervision of Paul Gauguin 1848-1903. The picture was an extreme exercise in Cloisonnism that approximated to pure abstraction. He was a Post-Impressionist painter, a part of the group of painters called Les Nabis. Sérusier along with Paul Gauguin 1848-1903 named the group. Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard and Maurice Denis became the best known of the group, but at the time they were somewhat peripheral to the core group.
