Painter, decorator and engraver, it was during his studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and at the Académie Julian that he met Vuillard, Bonnard and Sérusier with whom he founded the Nabis movement around 1888. At first symbolist and synthetic, his painting then shifted towards a renovated classicism. His style was influenced by the Italian pre-Renaissance artists and his favourite themes, faith and love, inspired compositions based on religious themes and intimate family scenes. Brittany and Italy are commonly present in his paintings. His oeuvre also includes many wall decorations, book illustrations and stained glass. He is considered the precursor of abstraction by his definition of painting as “a flat surface covered with colours assembled in a certain order.”