Maurice Denis

French painter, theorist, and fellow member of the Nabis with Pierre Bonnard.

Details

Lived: 1870–1943
Born: 1870
Died: 1943
Nationality: French
Roles: PainterAuthor

People Maurice Denis Knew

Relationships with other people, with sources for each connection.

Pierre Bonnard

Painter
Illustrator

Collaborated with · 1889

Bonnard and Denis worked together in the Nabis, the Paris group that treated painting as an ordered surface of color and line.

— Pierre Bonnard — biography and chronology

Movements

The artistic and literary currents this life ran through.

A nude young man stands on a rocky ledge holding a long red-shafted spear upright. A sphinx with a young woman's head and bare torso, a tawny lion's body and large blue-grey wings has sprung against his chest, its front paws hooked into him, staring up into his face while he looks steadily down at her. On the ledge below lie a pale human foot, scattered fingers, a red cloth and a gold crown; a narrow rocky gorge and grey sky fill the background, with an ornamented urn on a column at the right.

Art & literary movement · circa 1860–1910

Denis was a founding member of the Nabis, formed in Paris in the autumn of 1888 around Paul Serusier's interpretation of Gauguin's Symbolism. He recorded Gauguin's instructions to Serusier and later wrote the group's best-known statement of principle.

— The Nabis and Decorative Painting; Le Talisman, Paysage au Bois d'Amour

Connections and Sources

Maurice Denis’s connections to people, places, and works, with the sources behind each one.

Associated with · 1888

Symbolism