18 - Poster sketch for “Emprunt pour la Paix”

Poster sketch for “Emprunt pour la Paix” Pencil on paper 32 x 38.5 cm Vertical stamp with the monogram “MAUD” in the lower right corner Provenance: Maurice Denis Collection Private collection Displaying remarkable creative freedom, this drawing reflects Maurice Denis’s exploration of the themes of peace and reconstruction in the aftermath of World War I. Within a broad frame sketched in pencil, the artist creates an ambitious composition in which a winged figure traverses the space with an almost monumental grandeur. Stretching diagonally across the page, the silhouette dominates a landscape enlivened by a passing train, whose smoke and movement extend the celestial figure’s momentum into the lower part of the sheet. This dialogue between the allegorical figure and the signs of modernity lends the composition a unique significance: the new world taking shape after the conflict is here characterized by movement, circulation, and rebirth. The still-unresolved nature of the composition is particularly evident in the graphic treatment of the sheet. The corrections, construction lines, and barely sketched forms reveal the very process of its creation. Far from being a mere preparatory sketch, the drawing thus retains the liveliness of a thought in motion, in which Denis seeks a balance between the monumentality of the allegory and the precision of a narrative set within the contemporary landscape. The title *Emprunt pour la Paix* naturally places this study in the context of the immediate postwar period. The “Emprunt de la Paix,” launched by the French government in 1920 to help finance national reconstruction, gave rise to a major visual campaign, one of whose most famous images was commissioned from Henri Lebasque. While it is not necessary to establish a direct link with the official poster, our drawing seems to share in this same vision of restored peace and the nation’s recovery. This drawing finds a particularly illuminating echo in the large *Allegory of Justice and Peace*, designed by Maurice Denis in 1928 for the ceiling of the Senate’s public staircase. In this monumental decoration, as in the present drawing, the artist gives tangible form to the ideals of reconciliation and harmony that run through his interwar work. The allegorical vocabulary is combined here with an ethereal composition and a masterful arrangement of the figures in space. Through its graphic spontaneity as well as the ambition of its concept, *Emprunt pour la Paix* thus offers a valuable insight into how Maurice Denis revitalized his art of large-scale composition after the war. This study, straddling the line between a sketch and a decorative design, reveals with rare immediacy the inventiveness of an artist committed to translating the aspirations of his time into a language that is both poetic and monumental. Related Work Maurice DENIS, Allegory of Justice and Peace, 1928, ceiling of the Senate’s public staircase.