38 - Portrait of Marthe Asleep

Portrait of Marthe Asleep Pencil on tracing paper 25 x 22 cm Vertical stamp with the monogram “MAUD” (torn edges and creases) Provenance: Maurice Denis Collection Private collection “Maurice Denis was a passionate portraitist. Throughout his life, he never ceased to be fascinated by the faces around him and to seek the truth of the soul through the features of those he loved. His stained-glass windows, murals, large decorative canvases, and religious or secular scenes are populated by the people he encountered along his life’s journey. […] What interests Denis is the person themselves. This passion for the essential sometimes leads him to go even further. Often, he “painted a final portrait of those he knew during ‘that supreme tête-à-tête,’ where he said he had ‘so many times, through the pallor and stillness of a face, caught the reflection of a soul, the testament of an entire life, the anticipation of the resurrection.” Thus, in the portrait of the late Marthe, Maurice Denis manages to imbue her face with serenity, while in the portrait of the man on his deathbed, the artist succeeds in suggesting the human fragility of a gaunt figure. Agnès Delannoy, *Maurice Denis: The Draftsman. The Work Revealed*, Paris, Somogy Editions d’art, 2006, p. 210.