Maurice DENIS (1870-1943) - Lot 148

Maurice DENIS (1870-1943) Maternité rose devant la mer, 1911 Oil on parquet board, signed and dated lower left (19)11 Size: 50 x 37 cm A certificate of authenticity from Claire Denis, dated May 6, 2001, will be given to the buyer. Provenance : Galerie Druet, 1911 Artcurial sale, December 10, 2002, lot 472 Painted in 1911, this picture depicts his wife Marthe and their son Dominique on the balcony of the Villa Silencio, overlooking Trestignel beach in Perros-Guirec, Brittany. The Villa Silencio, acquired by Denis in 1908, occupied a central place in his family and artistic life. It was here that his son Dominique was born in 1909. A place of serenity and inspiration, this residence enabled him to explore the themes of maternity, intimacy and nature, recurrent in his work. Symbolist and Nabi influences are evident in the decorative treatment of the scene: soft, luminous colors, simplified contours and an atmosphere imbued with spirituality and tenderness. The composition highlights the mother-child relationship, a subject dear to the artist, while integrating the surrounding nature, bathed in a delicate, rosy light. This painting illustrates Maurice Denis' ideal of "remembering that a painting, before being a warhorse, a naked woman or some anecdote, is essentially a flat surface covered with colors in a certain order assembled together." Here, he combines this modernist vision with an intimate, poetic evocation of his own life. Today, Maternité rose devant la mer remains a sensitive testimony to the bond between the artist, his family and Brittany, a region that played an essential role in his inspiration.