This is a plate from the album ‘Amour’ inspired by the pages of the artist’s journal written at the time of his engagement and gathered under the title "Les Amours de Marthe". This lithograph therefore represents Marthe Meurier, with whom Denis got engaged in 1891. The album’s narrative of a blossoming romance unfolds across the prints through a wide array of colours from vivid tones to subtle shades of pastel. Colour was paramount in this album as was in Denis’s artistic practice and theory more broadly.
Ambroise Vollard (very important Parisian art dealer of the time) commissioned Denis the album in about 1896, though according to Pierre Cailer (Cailler 1968, nos.107-17), the artist started work on the album already in 1892.
