Denis, Maurice

Denis, Maurice (1870–1943). French painter, designer, lithographer, illustrator, and writer on art theory. He was born at Granville and spent most of his life at St Germain-en-Laye, a suburb of Paris. In 1888 he became a student at the Académie Julian and in the same year, with a number of fellow students including Bonnard and Sérusier, he founded a group of Symbolist painters called the Nabis. Together with Sérusier, Denis was the chief theorist of the group; he published articles in several reviews, most notably ‘Définition du néo-traditionnisme’ (Definition of Neo-Traditionalism), which appeared in Art et critique in August 1890. This ‘Manifesto of Symbolism', as Denis later called the article, contains a pronouncement that has become famous as an anticipation of the underlying principle of much modern—especially abstract—art: ‘Remember that a picture—before being a war horse or a nude woman or an anecdote—is essentially a flat surface covered with colours assembled in a certain order.’ Denis's early work, strongly influenced by Gauguin, did indeed place great emphasis on flat patterning, but he did not intend to encourage non-representational art, for he was also very much concerned with subject-matter; he was a devout Catholic and wanted to bring about a revival of religious painting. Many of his easel paintings have religious subjects, and in 1899 he carried out his first large-scale religious commission—a mural in the Chapelle de la Sainte-Croix at Vésinet. Numerous others followed, and in 1919 he founded the Ateliers d'Art Sacré with Georges Desvallières to provide church decorations of various kinds, including mosaics and stained glass.

Typically Denis's style in his religious work was tender and mild, with pale colours and relaxed lines. He also did a good deal of secular decorative work, for example murals at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris (1912), and a series of eleven large canvases on The Story of Psyche (1908–9) for the Moscow home of Ivan Morozov (Denis visited Moscow in 1909 in the course of this work). Throughout his career he continued to paint small-scale works, many depicting his own family life. His most famous single picture is probably Homage to Cézanne (Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 1900) showing Denis himself and a number of Cézanne's other admirers, including Bonnard, Redon, Sérusier, and Vuillard, gathered round a still-life by the master. His best paintings were done early in his career; after about 1900 they became more classical in style (influenced by visits to Italy) and increasingly bland. Denis's prolific output also included lithographs, book illustrations, and designs for the stage. He also found time to teach at the Académie Ranson, 1909–19. His critical writings are for the most part collected in Théories (1912) and Nouvelles Théories (1922). In 1939 he published Histoire d'art religieux, and his Journal was posthumously published in three volumes in 1957–9. Denis died after being hit by a lorry. The 17th-century building that was his home in St Germain-en-Laye from 1914 has been converted into the highly attractive Musée du Prieuré, housing a fine collection of works by himself and his associates.