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Maurice Denis was a French painter, decorative artist, and writer. An important figure in the changing world of late 19th-century European art, Denis is associated with Les Nabis, Symbolism, and later Neo-classicism. His theories contributed to the foundations of Cubism, Fauvism, and abstraction. After World War I, Denis founded the Ateliers d'Art Sacré, decorated the interiors of churches, and wo…
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culture · French painter (1870–1943) · illustrator · writer · art critic · lithographer · painter · graphic artist · art historian · art theorist · visual artist · artist · also Maurice Denis, Moris Deni, M. Denis, m. denis, Denis
Born 25 November 1870 · Died 13 November 1943 · Q440369
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“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.”
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Artnet news: Maurice Denis
Denis's Stehender Knabe unter einem Baum, which had been listed on the German Lost Art Foundation website, was found by family of Holocaust victim Marcel Monteux, from whom it had been looted
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At the UK's Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool
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Died 1943-11-13.
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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 n
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By the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions to decorate the main staircase of the Centre William Rappard
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Awarded Commander of the Legion of Honour (1926).
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"The sublime is to approach the subject or wall with an attitude that is grand, noble, and in no way petty
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Denis painted a chapel dedicated to her memory
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Following her death in 1919, Denis painted a chapel dedicated to her memory.
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Declared his intention to aim for the "supreme goal of painting, which is the large-scale decorative mural
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Denis purchased the former hospital of Saint-Germaine-en-Laye, constructed under Louis XIV in the 17th century
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Was filled with rich and colorful floral illustration
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Began work on illustrations for Fiorette by Saint Francis of Assisi
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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, under the subtitle: "Fro
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Taught painting at the Académie Ranson in Paris, where his students included Tamara de Lempicka
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Denis began work on an important decorative project for the Russian art patron Ivan Morozov, who had been a major patron of Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir, and who owned The Night Café by Vincent van Gogh
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With the neoclassical Bacchus and Ariadne, brightening his colors and showing a happy family romping nude but more modestly on a beach
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Joined the traditionalist and nationalist Action Française movement, but he left in 1927 after the group had moved to the extreme right and was condemned by the Vatican
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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
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And remained a member until 1927, when the group had moved to the extreme right and was formally condemned by the Vatican
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Then illustrations for Sagesse by the poet Paul Verlaine, published in 1911
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The French state acquired one of the paintings, his first official recognition
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Had bought a small villa at the beach in Perros-Guirec in Brittany, which was then a remote and little-populated fishing village
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And wrote an article that included Cézanne's remark: "I want to make of impressionism something solid and durable, like the art in museums
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Denis painted La Petit Air, based on the poem Princesse Maleine by Stéphane Mallarmé, the most prominent literary proponent of Symbolism
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Denis, in a collaborative project with the writer André Gide, provided a series of thirty lithographs to accompany a long essay by Gide, called Le Voyage d'Urien
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And showed at the Salon of Independents in 1893
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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
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“A flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order”
Formed the artistic group Les Nabis, the name taken from "Nabi" the Hebrew name for "prophet"
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By a major retrospective of Japanese prints at the École des Beaux-Arts
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And made a lithograph, featuring Marthe, for the cover for the sheet music of La Damoiselle élue by Claude Debussy
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Appeared in an October 1890 work by Denis, Taches du soleil sur la terrace, and later in Denis's Solitude du Christ (1918)
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To illustrate an edition of the book of poems Sagesse by Paul Verlaine, Denis carved a series of seven highly stylized woodblock prints, distilling the essence of his work
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Denis was captivated by an exhibition of works by Gauguin and others at a Volpini exhibition in a café near the grounds of the Exposition Universelle in Paris
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Enrolled in Académie Julian to prepare for the entrance examination to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris
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Studied at Académie Julian (1888).
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Studied at Lycée Condorcet (1882–1887).
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Discovered a new source of inspiration, the works of Puvis de Chavannes
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Recorded in his journal his admiration for the colors, candle light and incense of the ceremonies at the local church
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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
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Born 1870-11-25.
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Moved to Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the Paris suburbs
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