In the heart of a dense forest a strange scene is portrayed: what are these three women doing with impassive gazes? They are engaged in a curious ceremony. Kneeling in the center, one of them appears to be making an offering in front of a burning flame on a rock. Could it be an altar of supernatural forms? We can see an animal asleep peacefully. The ocher green color allows it to blend in with the rest of the undergrowth. Paul Sérusier applies here the pictorial principles of synthesism, inherited from the Pont-Aven School and from Paul Gauguin. The neat trunks do not show their branches, which gives this forest a disproportionate look. The perspective was banned, as in the art of Japanese prints, which influenced Western artists.

The Nabi movement, heir to the principles of the Pont-Aven School, moves away from reality by simplifying the forms and reducing the color palette. For these artists "every work of art is a transposition, a caricature, the passionate equivalent of a sensation received". Drawing inspiration from the forest of Huelgoat, a wild region, Sérusier's art is also part of the symbolist movement: there he finds material to create a mystical and timeless work.

© Musée des beaux-arts de Quimper.