Maurice DENIS
(1870 Granville – 1943 Paris)
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Les Crépuscules ont une douceur d’ancienne peinture [The Twilight has the softness of an old painting] – 1898
Lithograph printed in four colours on thin white vellum. Signed in pencil. Edition of 100. Published by Vollard and printed by Auguste Clot, Paris. Framed.
Size of sheet: 41.5 x 30 cm.
Cailler 113; Johnson 32-6.
Maurice Denis: Les Crépuscules ont une douceur d’ancienne peinture
This is plate VI of 12 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 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.