Twilights Have the Softness of Old Paintings

Maurice Denis was a devout Catholic and often drew visual connections between his wife, Marthe, the subject of this print series, and the Virgin Mary.

Description

Maurice Denis belonged to the Nabis, a group of artists who came together in 1889 to pursue a radical new style informed by subjective experience and emotion. This print is from a series in which Denis explored his devotion to his wife, Marthe, by depicting her in a variety of settings alongside titles drawn from his own journal. The vague but evocative images were meant to encourage the viewer to draw connections to the theme and meditate on its meaning.

A vertically oriented color lithograph depicts a woman with a light skin tone and long yellow hair. She faces slightly left, her cheeks and lips highlighted in pink, wearing a pink and white spotted dress. Behind her, soft, textured strokes form dark gray-green trees filled with pink shapes. Yellow cursive text sits at the bottom left, with a signature and '92' at the bottom right on the cream-colored paper.

Twilights Have the Softness of Old Paintings

1899

Maurice Denis, August Clot, Ambroise Vollard

(French, 1870–1943), (French, 1858–1936), (French, 1867–1939)

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