GERMAN

DENIS  Maurice

Maurice Denis one of the first members of the »Nabis« group, which later should produce the important representatives of French religious painting of the 20th Century.

Denis was born in 1870, the son of a railway administrator, and spent his childhood in St-Germain-en-Laye.

He visited the Lycee Condorcet and began to paint at the Academie July-at to paint in the last year of school; in 1888 he went to the Ecole National Superieure des Beaux-Arts, where he proved an eager student.

The conventional admiration for Ingres, Gustave Moreau, Puvis de Chavannes and Odilon Redon influenced his early works; more valuable than this rather academic inspiration proved, however, his friendship with Serusier, the "banner-bearers" at the Academie Julian.

Serusier acquainted Denis with the new ideas of Gauguin and the school of Pont-Aven and thus distracted him from his academic career.

Denis was picked up by the painter-group, named by Serusier "Nabis" (of the Jewish 'Nabi', the Prophet).

They used a 'flat' technology, the so-called [Zellenschmelztechnik].

Significant is also their enthusiasm for poetry of symbolism and their opinion that it does not suffice to simply reproduce nature in paintings.

This theory was drawn up by Denis most distinctly in the introduction of his appropriately famous essay of 1890: one should consider that a picture, before it becomes a battle horse, a naked woman or just an anecdote, according to its nature is a flat surface,  covered with paint in a particular fashion.

Denis' late interest however, showed already in that group, where each member had a nickname, and he was called "Nabi with the Beautiful Icons".

His travels to Italy in 1895 and 1898 he was particularly impressed with the Italian 'Primitives',
especially the works of Piero della Francesca and Fra Angelico.

Denis saw his calling in being a religious painter.

His early works like "The Catholic Mystery" (Paris) of 1890 pointed out the way to his church-decorations; the first work of this type was created in 1899 for the College Ste-Croix in Le Vesinet.

Although Denis painted a variety of subjects including landscape and figure studies, especially of mother and child, him main interest, however lay in sacred art.

He worked not only for churches but founded also, together with George Desvallieres in 1919  the "Workshops for Sacred Art" in Paris, a training place for artists, in which priests advised on Church Ceremony.

Denis was often commissioned to paint wall decorations; the important being the Theatre of the Champs-Elysees of 1912, the Palais de Chaillot and the League of Nations building in Geneva, and in the religious field, for the St-Louis Church in Vincennes, the Franciscan Chapel in Rouen, in 1930, for St-Martin in Vienne, in 1933 as well as Marie Mediatrice on Cyprus in 1941.

Denis also worked as a writer and critic; an article collection that includes his "Nabis" theories, was published under the title of "Theoriesa" in 1910; whereupon followed another theoretical piece and "Charms et Lecons d'Italie", where he thanked the Italians for their influence.

Maillol confirmed that Denis had a big influence on his work..

Denis died in 1943 at a result of a car accident.

Selection of works:

[AVIGNON] museum [Calvet Maternité blanche], 1923, canvas,
77 x of 81 [cm]. - PARIS [Musee] National [d'Art] Modern "The Catholic
[Mysterium], 1890, canvas, 51 of x77 [cm]/ "The [Musen],
1893, canvas, 168 x of 135 [cm] l [nHuldigung] for [Cezanne], 1900,
Canvas, 780 x of 240 [cm]/ s [Verkündigung] at Maria ", 1913, canvas, 100 x
of 126
[cm].

Literature references:

W. DETENTION-MAN "Painting in the 20th Century, Munich 1962,
S. 57 and following, 679 and following - P. ) [AMOT Maurice Denis], Paris
1947 -
S. BARAZZETTI-DEMO-ULIN [Maurice Denis], Paris 1945. - M. [BRILLANT]»
portrait [de Maurice Deniso], Paris 1945. - M. [DENIS]
Charm [et Lecons d'Italie]~, Paris 1933/ journal intimate«, Paris
1927/ [Nouvelles Theories], 1974-21«, Paris 1925/» [Th]~ [ories],
1890-1910n, Paris 1913. H. Read

Kunst- Ausstellung / ART EXHIBITION Maurice Denis

Kunst-Ausstellung / ART EXHIBITION Aristide Maillol