Color lithograph on tissue paper. Title in lower left corner. On the passepartout the name and the words 'original lithographie'. This is planche no. 10 of the 'Amour' series, created in 1899 by the French artist and inspired by the love poems Denis wrote for his future wife, Marthe Meurier.Of the initial series, a number of replicas were made, including one on tissue paper dated 1911. Maurice Denis, a French painter, was artistically formed to coincide with the birth of the Symbolist movement, which strongly influenced him, imposing itself by its simplicity and its philosophy of an art that was a synthesis of the external world and the spirituality of the artist.In his very early works, the painting style was naturalist and neo-Impressionist, but in time he tended toward pure decorativism, characterized by areas of flat color and sharp outlines. In 1888, at the Julian Academy in Paris, Maurice Denis founded with Paul Sérusier, Pierre Bonnard and Paul Ranson, the Nabis (Prophets) group of painters, a group that echoed in its aesthetic ideals the works and poetics of Paul Gauguin, for the overcoming of Impressionist naturalism through a return to primitive and Japanese art. Of the Nabis' meetings, usually held in the editorial office of the magazine 'Revue Blanche' or at the Ranson Academy, Denis particularly appreciated the mystical atmosphere, the esoteric jargon, and the nickname each painter received from the group: Denis was called 'the Nabi of beautiful images.' As 'Nabi' Maurice Denis painted intimate, enigmatic pictures, and the themes of his painting, whether religious in nature or situations from everyday life, were brought into an ideal and unreal dimension, in an atmosphere of warm and serene intimacy, achieved with an extremely delicate stroke.A constant in his life was his profession of the Catholic faith, which always played a priority role for him. He received numerous commissions for the decoration of churches, and this made him return to the great tradition of mural painting by executing solemn frescoes of monumental layout, inspired by a literary Catholicism.Religious fervor led Maurice Denis to found the Ateliers d'Art Sacré in 1919, devoting much time to prayer, so much so that he became a tertiary of St. Dominic, without isolating him from the world, so he participated in the social life of the time. In addition to his vast output as a painter, Denis was a great draughtsman and illustrator.Until his death, Maurice Denis continued to paint in a modern interpretation of great antique painting, supported by his strong artistic vein, continually fueled by his travels, many of them to Italy, which brought him into direct contact with the Pre-Raphaelites and the Neoclassicals.
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