Henri Gabriel Ibels

French illustrator, printmaker, painter and author. Ibels studied at the Académie Julian with Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard and was a founding member of Les Nabis (1889). With Vuillard and Maurice Denis he soon caught the public eye and earned the nickname ‘le Nabis journaliste’. Ibels’ images were powerful and heavily graphic. He drew inspiration from life on the street, cafés, the circus and boxing ring. His graphic style owed much to the art of Honoré Daumier, Japanese woodcuts, Paul Gauguin and the Pont-Aven School. Ibels collaborated with Toulouse-Lautrec and became involved in avant-garde theater. He exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants for the first time in 1891.