Paul Ranson

Ranson, Theosophist?

Folasade John, Princeton Class of 2009

Paul Ranson’s brief flare of artistic genius during the early 1890’s littered his atelier with paintings of devils, women (often naked), sorcerers, and forests stocked with sinuous, sensual trees (Valence 26). Ranson delved into the Symbolist movement, becoming interested in black magic, spells, and alchemy through the writings of authors such as Edouard Schure and so his painting became ever more steeped in the icons of the black arts (Japonisme). At the same time, Ranson studied Buddhism and Theosophy, incorporating various symbols from other mythologies into his paintings (Thomson Ranson). These, like Christ and Buddha (1890) combine the crucifix of his Catholic birth with his newly found knowledge. This link between Ranson’s religious interests and the subject matter of his paintings has not been lost on the historians who examine to this era of his paintings, attempting to connect the lines between them. Yet, says Caroline Boyle Turner,

“The effort expended later by historians to « read » a profound significance and personal sense in the esoteric subjects [of his painting] in the beginning and middle of the 1890’s would have made him laugh. He was neither an alchemist, nor an adept of black magic, nor a sorcerer. He was not Catholic, Buddhist, or a Theosophist. (Japonisme 15)”

According to Turner, these historians were grossly misled, and though Ranson studied Theosophy, he did not truly believe in its tenets. As a Symbolist painter, he used all of the iconic images that he came across to form his art, whether or not what they traditionally represented was something in which he actually believed. In Turner’s view of things, Ranson was much like the author who, being a rich aristocratic male, writes about the plights of a poor peasant woman. For her, his choice of symbols was purely aesthetic and stylistic.

While Turner’s argument seems valid to a degree, it is not exactly watertight. If Ranson was using symbols to express his view of the world, could he truly have no belief in any of the tools that he used? It does not seem so: in fact, it seems that while Ranson might not have been an alchemist or a sorcerer, he had been a Theosophist from the earliest years of his life, even before he entered the world of Symbolism. Which we can see specifically in the recurrent theme of women and their interaction with nature in Ranson’s works, parallels his belief that man and nature were one. In this way, Ranson creates works that made women and nature actors for Ranson’s Theosophical beliefs, sometimes mirrors of each other.

The Exhibit
What is Theosophy?
"Le Temple" and the Esoteric
"L'etre Arbe" the Being of the Tree
"Femme Offerte" The Offered Woman
Princesses and Gardens
Ranson's Bathers
La Lotus
Conclusion
Works Cited
About the Author

The Gallery
Paul Ranson, the "Forgotten Nabi"
The Secret Doctrine
The Darker Side of Ranson's Women
Serusier: Le Nabi a la Barbe(The Nabi with a Beard)