Maurice Denis (; 25 November 1870 – 13 November 1943) was a French painter, decorative artist, and writer. An important figure in the transitional period between
impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...
and
modern art
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...
, he is associated with ''
Les Nabis'',
symbolism
Symbolism or symbolist may refer to:
Arts
* Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism
** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
** Russian sy ...
, and later
neo-classicism
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative
Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, ...
.
["Denis, Maurice." Belinda Thomson, Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online, ]Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
. Retrieved 18 June 2014. His theories contributed to the foundations of
cubism
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
,
fauvism
Fauvism /ˈfoʊvɪzm̩/ is the style of ''les Fauves'' (French language, French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early 20th-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the Representation (arts), repr ...
, and
abstract art
Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.
Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...
. Following the First World War, he founded the
Ateliers d'Art Sacré (Workshops of Sacred Art), decorated the interiors of churches, and worked for a revival of religious art.
Biography
Early life
Maurice Denis was born 25 November 1870, in
Granville, Manche
Granville (; Norman: ''Graunville'') is a commune in the Manche department and region of Normandy, northwestern France. The chef-lieu of the canton of Granville and seat of the ', it is a seaside resort and health resort of Mont Saint-Michel Ba ...
, a coastal town in the
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
region of France. His father was of modest peasant origins; after four years in the army, he went to work at the railroad station. His mother, the daughter of a miller, worked as a seamstress. After their marriage in 1865, they moved to
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris.
Inhabitants are called ''Saint-Germanois'' or ''Saint-Ge ...
in the Paris suburbs. His father was employed in the offices the administration of the Western Railroads in Paris.
Maurice was an only child. From an early age, his passions were religion and art. He began keeping a journal in 1884 at the age of thirteen. In 1885 he recorded in his journal his admiration for the colors, candle light and incense of the ceremonies at the local church. He frequented the Louvre, and admired especially the works of
Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro; February 18, 1455) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Vasari in his '' Lives of the Artists'' as having "a rare and perfect talent".Giorgio Vasari, ''Lives of the Artists''. Pengu ...
,
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...
and
Botticelli
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when he was rediscovered ...
. At the age of fifteen he wrote in his journal, "Yes, I must that I become a Christian painter, that I celebrate all the miracles of Christianity, I feel that is what is needed." In 1887 he discovered a new source of inspiration, the works of
Puvis de Chavannes
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French painter known for his mural painting, who came to be known as "the painter for France". He became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Bea ...
.
Denis was accepted as a student at one of the most prestigious Paris schools, the
Lycée Condorcet
The Lycée Condorcet () is a school founded in 1803 in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. It is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inception, var ...
, where he excelled at philosophy. However, he decided to leave the school at the end of 1887 and in 1888 enrolled in
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number a ...
to prepare for the entrance examination to the
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...
in Paris. There he studied with the painter and theorist
Jules Joseph Lefebvre
Jules Joseph Lefebvre (; 14 March 183624 February 1911) was a French figure painter, educator and theorist.
Early life
Lefebvre was born in Tournan-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, on 14 March 1836. He entered the École nationale supérieure des Bea ...
. He passed the entrance examination for the Beaux-Arts in July 1888, and passed another examination in November to receive his baccalaureate in philosophy.
Les Nabis
File:115 Maurice Denis Portrait de l'artiste à l'âge de 18 ans.jpg, Self-portrait at the age of 18 (1889)
File:Maurice Denis, 1889, Le Calvaire (Climbing to Calvary), oil on canvas, 41 x 32.5 cm, Musée d'Orsay.jpg, ''Climbing to Calvary'' (1889)
File:MauriceDenis-LeMystereCatholique.JPG, ''Le Mystere Catholique'' (1889)
File:'Motif Romanesque' by Maurice Denis, 1890, LACMA.JPG, ''Motif Romanesque'' (1890), Los Angeles County Museum of Art
At the Académie Julian, his fellow students included
Paul Sérusier
Paul Sérusier (9 November 1864 – 7 October 1927) was a French painter who was a pioneer of abstract art and an inspiration for the avant-garde Nabis movement, Synthetism and Cloisonnism.
Education
Sérusier was born in Paris. He studied a ...
and
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard (; 3 October 186723 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. A founding member of the Post-Impressionist ...
, who had shared ideas about painting. Through Bonnard he met additional artists, including
Édouard Vuillard
Jean-Édouard Vuillard (; 11 November 186821 June 1940) was a French painter, decorative artist and printmaker. From 1891 through 1900, he was a prominent member of the Nabis, making paintings which assembled areas of pure color, and interior s ...
,
Paul Ranson
Paul-Élie Ranson (29 March 1861 – 20 February 1909) was a French painter and writer associated with Les Nabis.
Biography
He was born in Limoges. His mother died in childbirth, so he was raised and educated by his grandparents and his ...
,
Ker-Xavier Roussel
Ker-Xavier Roussel (10 December 1867 – 6 June 1944) was a French painter associated with Les Nabis.
Biography
Born François Xavier Roussel in Lorry-lès-Metz, Moselle in 1867, at age fifteen he studied at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris; al ...
and
Hermann-Paul
René Georges Hermann-Paul (27 December 1864 – 23 June 1940) was a French artist. He was born in Paris and died in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.
He was a well-known illustrator whose work appeared in numerous newspapers and periodicals. His fine art ...
. In 1890 they formed a group which they called the
Nabis
Nabis ( grc-gre, Νάβις) was the last king of independent Sparta. He was probably a member of the Heracleidae, and he ruled from 207 BC to 192 BC, during the years of the First and Second Macedonian Wars and the eponymous "War against Nabis" ...
, taken from "Nabi"—Hebrew for "Prophet". Their philosophy was based upon the philosophy of
positivism
Positivism is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—meaning ''a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. G ...
, and the writings of
Auguste Compte
Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte (; 19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense ...
and
Hippolyte Taine
Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (, 21 April 1828 – 5 March 1893) was a French historian, critic and philosopher. He was the chief theoretical influence on French naturalism, a major proponent of sociological positivism and one of the first practition ...
. I rejected naturalism and materialism in favor of something more idealistic. Denis described it in 1909: "Art is no longer a visual sensation that we gather, like a photograph, as it were, of nature. No, it is a creation of our spirit, for which nature is only the occasion."
For his technique, Denis was first drawn toward the neoimpressionist style of
Seurat
Georges Pierre Seurat ( , , ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough su ...
, but rejected it as too scientific. In 1889, Denis was captivated by an exposition of works of Gauguin and his friends at the Cafe Volponi, on the edge of the
Paris Universal Exposition of 1889. Recalling it later, Denis wrote, "What amazement, followed by what a revelation! In place of windows opening on nature, like the impressionists, these were surfaces which were solidly decorative, powerfully colorful, bordered with brutal strokes, partitioned." The work of Gauguin had an immediate effect on Denis' work. The brightly colored forms of Gauguin's ''Vache au-dessus du gouffre'' first shown in 1889, appeared in an October 1890 work by Denis, ''Taches du soleil sur la terrace'', and later in Denis' ''Solitude du Christ'' (1918).
The Nabis drifted apart by the end of the 1880s, but their ideas influenced the later work of both
Bonnard Bonnard is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include:
* Abel Bonnard (1883–1968), French poet, novelist and politician
* (18881959), Swiss scholar and translator of classical Greek
* Jean-Louis Bonnard (1824&ndas ...
and
Vuillard, as well as non-Nabi painters like
Henri Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...
.
Japanism
File:Soir de septembre-Maurice Denis-IMG 8192.JPG, ''September Evening'', (1891), Musée d'Orsay
Another influence on Denis at the time was the art of Japan. The interest of French artists in Japanese arts had begun in the 1850s, then was renewed by displays at the
Paris Universal Exposition (1855) and was revived again in 1890 by a major retrospective of Japanese prints at the École des Beaux-Arts. Even before 1890 Denis had been cutting out and studying the illustrations of the catalog ''Japan Artistique'' published by
Siegfried Bing
Samuel Siegfried Bing (26 February 1838 – 6 September 1905), who usually gave his name as S. Bing (not to be confused with his brother, Samuel Otto Bing, 1850–1905), was a German-French art dealer who lived in Paris as an adult, and who ...
. In November 1888 he had declared to his friend Émile Bernard that he wanted to move from "Giving color to (
Puvis de Chavannes
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French painter known for his mural painting, who came to be known as "the painter for France". He became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Bea ...
)" to "making a blend with Japan." His paintings in the Japanese style featured a wide format and very stylized composition and decoration, appearing like Japanese screens.
"A flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order"
In August 1890, Denis consolidated his new ideas and presented them in a famous essay published in the review ''Art et Critique''. The celebrated opening line of the essay was: "Remember that a picture, before being a battle horse, a female nude or some sort of anecdote, is essentially a flat surface covered with
color
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
s assembled in a certain order." This idea was not original to Denis; the idea had been forward not long before by
Hippolyte Taine
Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (, 21 April 1828 – 5 March 1893) was a French historian, critic and philosopher. He was the chief theoretical influence on French naturalism, a major proponent of sociological positivism and one of the first practition ...
in ''The Philosophy of Art'', where Taine wrote: "A painting is a colored surface, in which the various tones and various degrees of light are placed with a certain choice; that is its intimate being." However, it was the expression of Denis which seized the attention of artists and became part of the foundation of
modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
. Denis was among the first artists to insist on the flatness of the picture plane—one of the great starting points for
modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
. However, as Denis explained, he did not mean that form of the painting was more important than the subject. He went on to write: "The profoundness of our emotions comes from the sufficiency of these lines and these colors to explain themselves...everything is contained in the beauty of the work." In his essay, he termed this new movement "neo-traditionalism", in opposition to the "progressism" of the neo-impressionists, led by
Seurat
Georges Pierre Seurat ( , , ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough su ...
. With the publication of this article, Denis became the best-known spokesperson for the philosophy of the Nabis, though in fact that group was very diverse and had many different opinions about art.
The next major event in the life of Denis was his meeting with Marthe Meurier in October 1890. From June 1891 they had a long romance, meticulously documented in his journal, and were married on 12 June 1893. She became an important part of his art, appearing in many pictures and also in decorative works, such painted fans, often as an idealized figure representing purity and love.
Symbolism
File:Maurice denis, il minuetto della principessa maleine (marthe al piano), 1891 (cropped).JPG, ''Marthe at the Piano'' (1891)
File:MauriceDenis-TriplePortraitDeMartheFiancee.JPG, ''Triple Portrait'' of Marthe (1892)
File:'Portrait of Marthe Denis, the Artist's Wife' by Maurice Denis.JPG, Portrait of Marthe, (1893)
File:Maurice denis, la dama nel giardino (nudo con bouquet di violette), 1894 (cropped).JPG, ''Nude with Bouquet of Violets'' (1894)
By the early 1890s, Denis had arrived at the artistic philosophy which guided most of his later work, and which changed very little; that the essence of art was to express love and faith, which to him were similar things. On 24 March 1895 he wrote in his journal: "Art remains a sure refuge, the hope of a reason in life from now on, and the consoling thought that little beauty manifests itself in our lives, and that we are continuing the work of Creation....Therefore the work of art has merit, inscribed in the marvelous beauty of flowers, of light, in the proportion of trees and shape of waves, and the perfection of faces; to inscribe our poor and lamentable life of suffering, of hope and of thought."
The art world was in transition in the early 1890s, with the death of
Van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inclu ...
in 1890 and of
Seurat
Georges Pierre Seurat ( , , ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough su ...
in 1891, and the first departure of
Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...
to
Tahiti
Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...
. The French State was gradually giving up its dominance of art through the annual salons it organized. An independent Salon had been formed in 1884 and in 1890 the official Salon broke into two parts, with the formation of the ''Société national des Beaux-Arts'', with its own annual show. Denis showed his works in both salons, as well as the ''La Libre Esthétique'' salon in Brussels, a leading European showcase for avan-garde art. The literary movement called
symbolism
Symbolism or symbolist may refer to:
Arts
* Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism
** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
** Russian sy ...
was launched by
Jean Moréas
Jean Moréas (; born Ioannis A. Papadiamantopoulos, Ιωάννης Α. Παπαδιαμαντόπουλος; 15 April 1856 – 31 March 1910), was a Greek poet, essayist, and art critic, who wrote mostly in the French language but also in Greek ...
in an article in ''
Le Figaro
''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...
'' in 1891. In March 1891 the critic George-Albert Dourer wrote an article for the Mercure-de-France calling Denis the leading example of "symbolism in painting". The work of Denis attracted the attention of critics and of important patrons, most notably Arthur Huc, the owner of the prominent newspaper ''La Dépêche de Toulouse'' who organized his own art salons and purchased a number of works by Denis.
Denis experimented with other art forms and with decorative art. Beginning in 1889, to illustrate an edition of the book of poems ''Sagesse'' by
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine (; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' in international and ...
, Denis carved a series of seven highly stylized woodblock prints, distilling the essence of his work. His patron Huc commissioned two large decorative panels, in the form of tapestries, for his Toulouse office. Denis, like other artists of the period, also designed colorful
lithograph
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
posters with the
arabesque
The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foli ...
curves of the
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
.
Beginning in 1891, shortly after his engagement, Denis made Marthe the most frequent subject of his paintings; she was depicted, in purified and idealized form, doing household tasks, taking naps, and at the dining room table. She appeared in his landscapes, and in his most ambitious works of the time, The series called ''The Muses'', which he began in 1893, and showed at the Salon of Independents in 1893. He sold the first painting to his friend Arthur Fontaine; In 1899 The French state acquired one of the paintings, his first official recognition.
His wife played the piano, and throughout the 1890s Denis had a growing interest in the connections between music and art. He painted a portrait of her at the piano in 1890. He designed a flowing lithograph, featuring Marthe, for the cover for the sheet music of ''La Damoiselle élue'' by
Claude Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
, as well as another lithograph for the poem ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' by
Maurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count (or Comte) Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...
, which Debussy transformed into an opera; and in 1894 he painted ''La Petit Air'', based on the poem ''Princesse Maleine'' by
Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of ...
, the most prominent literary proponent of symbolism. In 1893 made a collaborative project with the writer
André Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1947). Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the Symbolism (arts), symbolist movement, to the advent o ...
, which combined art and literature; he provided a series of thirty lithographs to accompany a long essay by Gide, called ''Le Voyage d'Urien''. The Lithographs did not illustrate the text, but approached the same topics from an artist's point of view.
Another topic he addressed in this period was the relationship between sacred love and profane love. The painting had three female figures, two nude and one clothed, following the model of ''Le Concert Champêtre'' and ''L'Amour Sacré et L'Amour Profane'' of
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
and ''
Déjeuner sur l'herbe Déjeuner (French: ''luncheon'' or in Canada: ''breakfast'') may refer to:
*'' Le Déjeuner en fourrure'', nickname for ''Object'', 1936 surrealist sculpture by Méret Oppenheim
*'' Le déjeuner sur l'herbe'' 1862/3 painting by Édouard Manet
*'' L ...
'' by
Manet
A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a decentralized type of wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers in wired networks or access points ...
. The setting is his own garden, with the viaduct of
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris.
Inhabitants are called ''Saint-Germanois'' or ''Saint-Ge ...
in the background. The nude figures represented sacred love, and he clothed figure profane love. He made another painting, this time of Marthe nude in the garden, representing both sacred and profane love in one figure.
Art Nouveau and decorative arts
File:Denis-Road-of-Life.jpg, ''April'' or ''The Road of Life'', one of four panels for the bedroom of a young girl (1892)
File:Maurice denis, paravento con colombe, 1896 ca. 01.JPG, Painted screen with doves (1896), Musée d'Orsay
File:MauriceDenis-PresentationAuTempleAFlorence-3.JPG, Stained glass window for private residence (1896)
File:MauriceDenis-LaLegendeDeStHubert-2LeLacherDesChiens.JPG, Second panel from ''The Legend of St. Hubert'' (1895-97)
File:Denis yvonne lerolle.jpg, ''Portrait of Yvonne Lerolle in Three Aspects'' (1897)
In the mid-1890s, with the appearance of the
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
style in Brussels and Paris, Denis began to pay greater attention to the decorative arts, though his themes of family and spirituality remained the same. Many of his new projects were commissioned by
Samuel Bing
Samuel Siegfried Bing (26 February 1838 – 6 September 1905), who usually gave his name as S. Bing (not to be confused with his brother, Samuel Otto Bing, 1850–1905), was a German-French art dealer who lived in Paris as an adult, and who ...
, the art dealer whose gallery gave its name to ''Art Nouveau''. His new projects included designs wallpapers, stained glass, tapestries, lamp shades, screens, and fans. But while he worked within the time period and used the materials of the Art Nouveau, his
themes and style remained distinctly his own.
His most important decorative work was a series of painted panels for the office of Baron Cochin, together called ''The Legend of St. Hubert'', painted between 1895 and 1897. It drew freely upon the Medici Chapel in Florence, and the works of
Nicolas Poussin
Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a ...
,
Delacroix Delacroix is a French surname that derives from ''de la Croix'' ("of the Cross").
It may refer to:
People
* Caroline Delacroix (1883–1945), French-Romanian mistress of Leopold II of Belgium
* Charles-François Delacroix (1741–1805), ...
and
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French people, French Painting, painter known for his mural painting, who came to be known as "the painter for France". He became the co-founder and president of the Soci ...
. Cochin and his family appear in one panel, and Denis's wife Anne in another. The panels celebrated families and faith. The Archbishop of Paris celebrated a mass in the office, when the French government nationalized his residence and other church property in 1907.
He produced a small number of portraits, including an unusual portrait of Yvonne Lerolle (1897) which showed her in three different poses in the same picture.
Neo-Classicism
File:Maurice denis, decorazione della cappella del collegio di sinte-croix du vésinet, esaltazione della croce e glorificazione della messa, 1899, 01.JPG, Decoration for the Chapel of Sainte-Croix du Vésinet (1899)
File:Maurice denis, gioco del volano, 1900, 01.JPG, ''Gioco del volano'', Racket game on a lawn (1900)
File:Maurice Denis Homage to Cezanne 1900.jpg, '' Homage to Cézanne'' (1900)
In January 1898 Denis made his first visit to Rome, where the works of
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...
and
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
in the Vatican made a strong impression upon him. He wrote a long essay, ''Les Arts a Rome'', declaring: "the classical aesthetic offers us at the same time a method of thinking and a method of wanting to be, a moral and at the same time a psychology...The classical tradition as a whole, by the logic of the effort and the greatness of results, is in some way parallel with the religious tradition of humanity." In the same year, the two leading figures of symbolism in art,
Gustave Moreau
Gustave Moreau (; 6 April 1826 – 18 April 1898) was a French artist and an important figure in the Symbolist movement. Jean Cassou called him "the Symbolist painter par excellence".Cassou, Jean. 1979. ''The Concise Encyclopedia of Symbolism.' ...
and
Puvis de Chavannes
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French painter known for his mural painting, who came to be known as "the painter for France". He became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Bea ...
, died. On his return to Paris, Denis re-oriented his art toward neo-classicism, with clearer lines and figures. He noted in his journal in March 1898: "Think of late paintings where Christ is the central figure...Remember the large mosaics of Rome. Reconcile the employment of large-scale decorative means and the direct emotions of nature."
Denis was a great admirer of
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...
; he traveled to Cézanne's home in 1896, and wrote an article reporting Cézanne's comment: "I want to make of impressionism something solid and durable, like the art in museums." In the article, Denis described Cézanne as "the Poussin of impressionism" and called him the founder of modern neo-classicism. One of the most important works of Denis from this period is ''
Homage to Cézanne'' (1900), painted following the death of his friend Paul Cézanne. In the foreground, it portrays the friends of Cézanne, several of them former Nabis; from left to right (
Odilon Redon
Odilon Redon (born Bertrand Redon; ; 20 April 18406 July 1916) was a French Symbolism (arts), symbolist painter, printmaker, Drawing, draughtsman and pastellist.
Early in his career, both before and after fighting in the Franco-Prussian War, he ...
,
Édouard Vuillard
Jean-Édouard Vuillard (; 11 November 186821 June 1940) was a French painter, decorative artist and printmaker. From 1891 through 1900, he was a prominent member of the Nabis, making paintings which assembled areas of pure color, and interior s ...
, the critic
André Mellerio,
Ambroise Vollard
Ambroise Vollard (3 July 1866 – 21 July 1939) was a French art dealer who is regarded as one of the most important dealers in French contemporary art at the beginning of the twentieth century. He is credited with providing exposure and emotio ...
, Denis himself,
Paul Sérusier
Paul Sérusier (9 November 1864 – 7 October 1927) was a French painter who was a pioneer of abstract art and an inspiration for the avant-garde Nabis movement, Synthetism and Cloisonnism.
Education
Sérusier was born in Paris. He studied a ...
,
Paul Ranson
Paul-Élie Ranson (29 March 1861 – 20 February 1909) was a French painter and writer associated with Les Nabis.
Biography
He was born in Limoges. His mother died in childbirth, so he was raised and educated by his grandparents and his ...
,
Ker-Xavier Roussel
Ker-Xavier Roussel (10 December 1867 – 6 June 1944) was a French painter associated with Les Nabis.
Biography
Born François Xavier Roussel in Lorry-lès-Metz, Moselle in 1867, at age fifteen he studied at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris; al ...
,
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard (; 3 October 186723 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. A founding member of the Post-Impressionist ...
, and Denis's wife Marthe). The painting appears very somber because they are all dressed in black for mourning, but it also has a second message; the paintings displayed behind the figures and on the easel represent the transition of modern art, from works by Gauguin and Renoir on the back wall to the painting by Cézanne on the easel, which illustrated, from Denis's point of view, the transition from impressionism and symbolism toward neo-classicism.
Denis was affected by the political turmoils of the time, such as the
Dreyfus affair
The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...
(1894–1906) which divided French society and the art world with
Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...
and
André Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1947). Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the Symbolism (arts), symbolist movement, to the advent o ...
on one side, defending Dreyfus, and
Rodin
François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...
,
Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...
and Denis on the other. Denis was in Rome during most of the events, and it did not affect his friendship with Gide. More significant for him was the movement of the French government to reduce the power of the church, and the decision of the government to officially separate the church and state in 1905. Denis joined the nationalist and pro-Catholic ''
Action Française
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 f ...
'' in 1904, and remained a member until 1927, when the group had moved to the extreme right and was formally condemned by the Vatican.
Neo-classicism versus Fauvism- the beach pictures
File:'Bacchus and Ariadne' by Maurice Denis, 1907, Hermitage.JPG, ''Bacchus and Ariadne'' (1907), the Hermitage
File:'Polyphemus' by Maurice Denis, 1907, Pushkin Museum.JPG, ''Polyphemus'' (1907), Pushkin Museum
The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (russian: Музей изобразительных искусств имени А. С. Пушкина, abbreviated as ) is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, located in Volkhonka street, just oppo ...
, Moscow
File:MauriceDenis-BaigneusesAPerrosGuirec.jpg, ''Bathers at Perros Guirec'' (1912)
File:Maurice Denis - Wave - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Wave'' (1916)
Until about 1906 Denis was considered in the avant-garde of Paris artists, but in that year
Henri Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...
presented ''
La Joie de Vivre'' with the bright and clashing colors of
fauvism
Fauvism /ˈfoʊvɪzm̩/ is the style of ''les Fauves'' (French language, French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early 20th-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the Representation (arts), repr ...
. In response, Denis turned increasingly toward mythology and what he termed "Christian humanism". In 1898, he had bought a small villa at the beach in
Perros-Guirec
Perros-Guirec (; br, Perroz-Gireg) is a commune in the department of Côtes-d'Armor in Brittany. It has been a seaside resort since the end of the 19th century.
Geography Climate
Perros-Guirec has a oceanic climate (Köppen climate classificat ...
in
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...
, which was then a remote and little-populated fishing village. In 1907, he used the beach there as the setting for the neoclassical ''Bacchus and Ariadne'', brightening his colors and showing a happy family romping nude on the beach. He followed this with a series of pictures of nudes at the beach or in bucolic settings, based on mythological themes.
Book design and illustration
File:Frontispiece, from the album Amours MET MM77360.jpg, Frontispiece lithograph from the series ''Amour'' (1899)
File:Maîtres de l'affiche V 3 - Pl 140 - Maurice Denis.jpg, Poster published in Les Maîtres de l'Affiche
''Maîtres de l'Affiche'' (Masters of the Poster) refers to 256 color lithographic plates used to create an art publication during the Belle Époque in Paris, France. The collection, reproduced from the original works of ninety-seven artists in a ...
From 1899 to 1911 Denis was also busy with graphic arts. For the publisher Vollard he made a set of twelve color lithographs titled ''Amour'', which was an artistic but not a commercial success. He then returned to making woodblock prints, doing a black-and-white series ''L'Imitation de Jesus-Christ'', in collaboration with the engraver Tony Beltrand, which published in 1903, then illustrations for ''Sagesse'' by the poet
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine (; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' in international and ...
, published in 1911. In 1911 he began work on illustrations for ''Fiorette'' by
Saint Francis of Assisi
Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a Mysticism, mystic Italian Catholic Church, Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most vener ...
. For this project he traveled alone by bicycle through
Umbria
it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman)
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, ...
and
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze'').
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...
, making drawings. The final work, published in 1913, was filled with rich and colorful floral illustration. He also made highly decorative book designs and illustrations for ''Vita Nova'' by
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
(1907) and twenty-four illustrations for ''Eloa'' by
Alfred de Vigny
Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny (27 March 1797 – 17 September 1863) was a French poet and early French Romanticist. He also produced novels, plays, and translations of Shakespeare.
Biography
Vigny was born in Loches (a town to which he never r ...
(1917). The last work, made during the midst of the First World War was more somber than his earlier work, largely colored in pale blues an greys.
Architectural decoration
File:Maurice Denis - The Story of Psyche.jpg, ''The Story of Psyche'', panel for mansion of Ivan Morozov, Moscow (1908)
File:Maurice denis, modello per la decorazione interna della cupola del teatro degli champs-elysées, 1911-12, 02.JPG, Portion of the mural for the cupola of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris (1908-11)
In 1908 Denis began work on an important decorative project for the Russian art patron
Ivan Morozov, who had been a major patron of
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
and
Auguste Renoir, and who owned ''The Night Cafe'' by
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...
. Denis created a large mural panel, ''The history of Psyche'', for the music room of Morozov's Moscow mansion, and later added some additional panels to the design. His fee for this project enabled him to buy his seaside house in Brittany. He then took on a more ambitious project, the cupola for a new theater, the
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, being constructed in Paris by the architect
Auguste Perret
Auguste Perret (12 February 1874 – 25 February 1954) was a French architect and a pioneer of the architectural use of reinforced concrete. His major works include the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the first Art Deco building in Paris; the C ...
. The theatre was modern; it was the first major building in Paris constructed of reinforced concrete, and is considered the first building in the
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style; but Denis' work was purely neoclassical. The theme was the history of music, with figures of Apollo and the Muses. Perret constructed a special studio for Denis so he could paint a work of such a large scale.
Teaching and theory — "a new classical order"
Beginning in 1909, he taught painting at the
Académie Ranson
The Académie Ranson was founded in Paris by the French painter Paul Ranson (1862–1909), who himself studied at the Académie Julian, in 1908. in Paris, where his students included
Tamara de Lempicka
Tamara Łempicka (born Tamara Rosalia Gurwik-Górska; 16 May 1898 – 18 March 1980), better known as Tamara de Lempicka, was a Polish painter who spent her working life in France and the United States. She is best known for her polished Art D ...
. She later gave him credit for teaching her the craft technique of painting, though her art-deco style was quite different from his. He also devoted much of his time to writing about theory. In 1909 he published ''Théories'', which brought together the articles he had written on art since 1890, describing the course of art from Gauguin to Matisse (whose work he disliked) to
Cézanne and
Maillol
Aristide Joseph Bonaventure Maillol (; December 8, 1861 – September 27, 1944) was a French sculptor, painter, and printmaker.Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette . "Maillol, Aristide". ''Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online''. Oxford University P ...
, under the subtitle: "From Symbolism and Gauguin towards a new classical order". The book was widely read, with three more editions published before 1920. It included his 1906 essay "The Sun", in which he described the decline of impressionism: "The common error of us all was to search above all for the light. It would have been better first to search for the Kingdom of God and his justice, that is to say for the expression of our spirit in beauty, and the rest would have arrived naturally." It also included his idea that "Art is the sanctification of the nature, of that nature found in everyone who is content to live."
And it described his theory of creation that found the source for art in the character of the painter: "That which creates a work of art is the power and the will of the artist."
Subjects of his mature works included
landscapes
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the p ...
and figure studies, particularly of mother and child. But his primary interestDenis responded in 1907, with the neoclassical ''Bacchus and Ariadne'', brightening his colors and showing a happy family romping nude but more modestly on a beach. He painted a series of works of nudes at the beach, an homage to the bathers of
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...
and the classical nudity of the Venus de Milo and other Greek sculpture. remained the painting of
religious
Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...
subjects, like "The dignity of labour", commissioned in 1931 by the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions to decorate the main staircase of the
Centre William Rappard
The Centre William Rappard at Rue de Lausanne 154, Geneva, Switzerland, was built between 1923 and 1926 to house the International Labour Office (ILO). It was the first building in Geneva designed to house an international organization. In 1975 t ...
.
Church windows and decoration
File:Musée départemental Maurice Denis Le Prieuré - Chapelle 05.JPG, Chapel of the Priory, Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1915-28)
File:Église Notre-Dame du Raincy - Le Raincy - Seine-Saint-Denis - France - Mérimée PA00079948 (21).jpg, Window of the Church of Notre-Dame du Raincy
File:Paris - Église du Saint-Esprit 22.jpg, Altarpiece of the Église du Saint-Esprit in Paris
File:Reims - église Saint-Nicaise, intérieur (17).jpg, Mural from the Church of Saint-Nicaise. Reims
Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne.
Founded by ...
In the last period of his life and work he turned his attention more and more to large-scale murals and to religious art.
In 1914 Denis purchased the former hospital of Saint-Germaine-en-Laye, constructed under Louis XIV in the 17th century. He renamed the building "The Priory" and Between 1915 and 1928, with the aid of the architect
Auguste Perret
Auguste Perret (12 February 1874 – 25 February 1954) was a French architect and a pioneer of the architectural use of reinforced concrete. His major works include the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the first Art Deco building in Paris; the C ...
, he decorated the building, particularly the unfinished chapel, which he filled with his own designs of frescos, stained glass, statues and furniture. In 1916 declared his intention to aim for the "supreme goal of painting, which is the large-scale decorative mural." he completed twenty murals between 1916 and his death in 1943.
Besides the Priory, his other major works of this period include the decoration of the
Church of Notre-Dame du Raincy, an innovative reinforced concrete art deco church in the Paris suburbs designed by
Auguste Perret
Auguste Perret (12 February 1874 – 25 February 1954) was a French architect and a pioneer of the architectural use of reinforced concrete. His major works include the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the first Art Deco building in Paris; the C ...
, which was completed in 1924. The church was designed in the spirit of ''
Sainte-Chapelle
The Sainte-Chapelle (; en, Holy Chapel) is a royal chapel in the Gothic style, within the medieval Palais de la Cité, the residence of the Kings of France until the 14th century, on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine in Paris, France.
Co ...
'' in Paris, to give the stained glass the maximum effect. The windows were made in collaboration with the stained-glass artist
Marguerite Huré; Denis designed the figurative art in the center of each window, while Marguerite Huré created the window and the abstract glass designs around it. Other major religious works include the chapel Church of Saint-Louis in Vincennes (1927), the windows of the chapel of La Clarté in
Perros (1931) and the church of
Thonon
Thonon-les-Bains (; frp, Tonon), often simply referred to as Thonon, is a subprefecture of the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. In 2018, the commune had a population of 35,241. Thonon-les-Bains is ...
his final project before his death in 1943.
On 5 February 1919, shortly after the First World War, Denis and
George Desvallières
George Desvallières (1861–1950) was a French painter.
A native of Paris, Desvallières was a great-grandson of academician Gabriel-Marie Legouvé, and received a religious upbringing. He studied at the Académie Julian(fgallica.bnf.fr, Lar ...
founded the ''
Ateliers d'Art Sacré'', or workshops of Sacred art. (1914–18) as part of a broad movement in Europe to reconcile the church with modern civilization. The ''Ateliers'' created art for churches, particularly those devastated by the recent war. Denis said that he was against academic art because it sacrificed emotion to convention and artifice, and was against realism because it was prose and he wanted music. Above all he wanted beauty, which was an attribute of divinity.
The most important church decorated by the ''Ateliers'' was the
Église du Saint-Esprit in Paris, finished in 1934. The murals and frescoes in the interior were painted by
George Desvallières
George Desvallières (1861–1950) was a French painter.
A native of Paris, Desvallières was a great-grandson of academician Gabriel-Marie Legouvé, and received a religious upbringing. He studied at the Académie Julian(fgallica.bnf.fr, Lar ...
,
Robert Poughéon, Nicolas Untersteller and Elizabeth Branly.The church was decorated by members of the
Ateliers d'Art Sacré, showing the history of the church militant and the history of the church triumphant from the 2nd to the 20th century. To ensure unity in the decorations the architect imposed a standard height for all the people depicted, and red as the color of all the backgrounds. The central theme of the paintings is "the history of the church militant and the history of the church triumphant from the 2nd to the 20th century. Denis painted two of the major works, the Altarpiece and another large work beside it. The church murals that he painted were strongly influenced by the Renaissance art he had seen in churches in Italy, particularly the work of
Giotto
Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto ( , ) and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic/Proto-Renaissance period. Giot ...
and Michelangelo. He wrote in 1922, "The sublime is to approach the subject or wall with an attitude that is grand, noble, and in no way petty."
Civic murals
In the late 1920s and 1930s, his prestige was such that he received commissions for a number of murals for important civic buildings. These included the ceiling over the stairway of the French Senate in the
Luxembourg Palace
The Luxembourg Palace (french: Palais du Luxembourg, ) is at 15 Rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of the ...
; and murals for the Hospice of the city of
Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
Saint-Étienne is the t ...
, where he returned to the colorful and neoclassical themes of his beach paintings. He was commissioned to make two mural panels for the
Palais de Chaillot
The Palais de Chaillot () is a building at the top of the in the Trocadéro area in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, 16th ''arrondissement'' of Paris, France.
For the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) ...
, built for the
1937 Paris International Exposition. Denis invited several friends from his earlier career,
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard (; 3 October 186723 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. A founding member of the Post-Impressionist ...
,
Édouard Vuillard
Jean-Édouard Vuillard (; 11 November 186821 June 1940) was a French painter, decorative artist and printmaker. From 1891 through 1900, he was a prominent member of the Nabis, making paintings which assembled areas of pure color, and interior s ...
and
Roussel, to participate in the project with him. The two panels celebrate sacred music and profane (non religious music) in a colorful neoclassical style, recalling his decoration for the cupola of the
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. The classical panel shows an ancient celebration in the
Boboli Gardens
The Boboli Gardens ( it, Giardino di Boboli) is a historical park of the city of Florence that was opened to the public in 1766. Originally designed for the Medici, it represents one of the first and most important examples of the Italian garden, ...
in Rome, which he had recently visited. The paintings can still be seen though they have been somewhat disfigured by later renovations.
In his later years, he also had two important commissions outside of France, both on his favorite theme of Christian faith and humanism; the first, in 1931, for the Offices of the International Labor Bureau in Geneva, commissioned by the International Association of Christian Workers in Geneva on the theme "Christ preaching to the workers"; and the second, in 1938, for the new headquarters of the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
. on the theme of being armed for peace, depicting a figure of Orpheus taming the tiger of war.
Late life
In January 1940, in his seventieth year, he summed up his accomplishments in his journal: "My marriage: Delacroix admired and understood; Ingres abandoned; break with the extremists. I have become official while at the same time cultivating the secret inquietude of an art which expresses my vision and my thought, while at the same time forcing me to better realize the lessons of the masters." Denis died in Paris of injuries resulting from an automobile accident in November 1943. The date of his death is variously listed as the 2nd, 3rd, or 13th.
Personal life
Denis married his first wife, Marthe Meurier, in 1893. They had seven children, and she posed for numerous Denis works. Following her death in 1919, Denis painted a chapel dedicated to her memory. He married again on 22 February 1922 to Elisabeth Graterolleore, whom he had used a model for one of the figures in the cupola of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. They had two children, Jean-Baptiste (born 1923) and Pauline (born 1925). Elisabeth also features in several paintings of Denis, sometimes alongside Marthe.
He was very active in the Roman Catholic Church as a
Tertiary
Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago.
The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...
, or member of a lay religious order. In 1907 he joined the traditionalist and nationalist
Action Française
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 f ...
movement, but he left in 1927 after the group had moved to the extreme right and was condemned by the
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
. During World War II, he firmly rejected the Vichy government.
Quotations about art
The published writings and the private journal of Denis give an extensive view of his philosophy of art, which he developed over his lifetime.
:: "Remember that a picture, before being a battle horse, a female nude or some sort of anecdote, is essentially a flat surface covered with
color
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
s assembled in a certain order." (''Art et Critique'' August 1890)
::"Art remains a sure refuge, the hope of a reason for our life here, and this consoling thought that a little beauty is also found in our life, and that we are continuing the work of creation....the labor of art has merit; to inscribe the marvelous beauty of flowers, of the light, of the proportion of trees and the form of waves, and the perfection of face, to inscribe our poor and lamentable life of suffering, of hope and of thought." (''Journal'', 24 March 1895)
::"Decorative and edifying. That is what I want art to be before anything else." (''Nouvelles Théories'' (1922)
::"Painting is first of all the art of imitation, and not the servant of some imaginary 'purity'". (''Nouvelles Théories'' (1922)
::"Don't lose sight of the essential objectives of painting, which are expression, emotion, delectation; to understand the means, to paint decoratively, to exalt form and color." (''Journal'', 1930)
Exhibitions
![MauriceDenis-LaLegendeDeStHubert-1LeDepart](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/MauriceDenis-LaLegendeDeStHubert-1LeDepart.JPG)
* 1963 From 28 June to 29 September 1963, at the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec,
Albi
Albi (; oc, Albi ) is a commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn department, on the river Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ''Albigensians'' (french: Albigeois, Albigeoise(s), oc, albig ...
. ''Paintings, water-colours, drawings, lithographs'', with an introduction by
Agnès Humbert
Agnès Humbert (12 October 1894 – 19 September 1963) was an art historian, ethnographer and a member of the French Resistance during World War II. She has become well known through the publication of a translation of the diary of her experience ...
* 1980 The Maurice Denis Museum was opened in the artist's home in the Parisian suburb of
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris.
Inhabitants are called ''Saint-Germanois'' or ''Saint-Ge ...
.
* 1995 A major retrospective exhibition took place in 1995 at the UK's
Walker Art Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group.
History of the Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...
in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
.
* 2007 A similar exhibition was mounted at the
Musée Des Beaux Arts de Montréal in 2007; it was the first major Denis show in North America.
Maurice Denis: at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts , Art Knowledge News
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See also
*Henry Lerolle
Henry Lerolle (3 October 1848 – 22 April 1929) was a French painter, art collector and patron, born in Paris. He studied at Académie Suisse and in the studio of Louis Lamothe.
His work was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1868, 1885, and 189 ...
, patron
References
Bibliography
*
Further reading
* Russell T. Clement, ''Four French Symbolists: A Sourcebook on Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, and Maurice Denis,'' Greenwood Press, 1996, and
* Frèches-Thory, Claire, and Perucchi-Petri, Ursula, ed.: ''Die Nabis: Propheten der Moderne'', Kunsthaus Zürich & Grand Palais, Paris & Prestel, Munich 1993 (German), (French)
* Paul Jamot, ''Maurice Denis,'' 1945, ASIN B000XY26Y6
*Jean-Jacques Leveque, ''Maurice Denis,'' 2006, &
*Diane Goullard – ''Maurice Denis (1870–1943). Leçons de l'Italie, d’après son journal'' (Français) , ''Lessons from Italy, based on his Journal'' (English) http://www.frenchandenglish.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/ASUMasters042109.pdf; https://silc.asu.edu/news/school-awards-radke-prize-translation#:~:text=After%20Radke's%20death,%20her%20sister%20and%20several%20friends,of%20Maurice%20Denis's%20journal%20from%20French%20into%20English.
External links
*
Musee Maurice Denis official site (in French)
''Pierre Bonnard, the Graphic Art''
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Denis (see index)
Diane Goullard – ''Maurice Denis (1870–1943). Leçons de l’Italie, d’après son journal'' (Français) , ''Lessons from Italy, based on his Journal'' (English)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Denis, Maurice
1870 births
1943 deaths
Lycée Condorcet alumni
École des Beaux-Arts alumni
19th-century French painters
French male painters
French Symbolist painters
20th-century French painters
20th-century French male artists
Académie Julian alumni
Members of the Académie des beaux-arts
Les Nabis
People from Manche
Pont-Aven painters
Post-impressionist painters
Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur
Road incident deaths in France
19th-century French male artists