62 - The Violin Lesson, c. 1909

The Violin Lesson, c. 1909 Oil on cardboard 74 x 50 cm Unsigned, undated Bears the following old exhibition labels on the back: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Maurice Denis Exhibition, No. 212 Yamato shipping label No. 67 Yamato shipping label Maurice Denis 2011 No. 43 LP Art label Maurice Denis and Brittany 151 LP Art label The Model Children No. 104 Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Maurice Denis Exhibition Mlle Blanche Reboul was Bernadette’s violin teacher, and Maurice Denis would take his daughter to La Clarté every day for her lesson, in a stroller because she had difficulty walking. Provenance: Maurice Denis Collection Private collection Exhibitions: The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées Centennial Exhibition, Musée Bourdelle, Paris, 1963, no. 64 (dimensions 90 x 65, with frame) Maurice Denis Exhibition, 1970; Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, no. 212, reproduced in black and white (with the erroneous date c. 1912) Maurice Denis Exhibition, 1981, Tokyo, Kyoto, no. 69, reproduced in black and white (“1912”) Maurice Denis Exhibition, 1870–1943; Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts—Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum—Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery—Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum; 1994/1995 “Vues d’enfance” Exhibition, Aulnay-sous-Bois, 2004, unnumbered “Maurice Denis and Brittany: The Summers of Silencio” Exhibition; La Roche-Jagu, 2009/2, cat. RJ-34, reproduced in color on p. 153 Bibliography: Jean Paul Bouillon, *Maurice Denis*, Skira, 1993; reproduced on p. 138 Jean Paul Bouillon, *Denis, Matisse, Kandinsky*, 1996, Jean Paul Bouillon, *Maurice Denis: Six Essays*, 2006, no. 43, reproduced in color A certificate of inclusion in the catalog raisonné of Maurice Denis’s work may be issued to the purchaser upon request to the Maurice Denis Committee. “A true music lover, a rare ‘friend’ of composers, an accomplished thinker on theoretical equivalences, and a harmonious theologian, Maurice Denis daunts the researcher with the breadth of his connections to music. Thus, it is inevitably only in an incomplete way that one can discuss this relationship, which is nonetheless essential to painting a ‘portrait’ of the painter. As early as 1891, with *Marthe at the Piano*, also known as *The Minuet of Princess Maleine*, Maurice Denis, in a sense, provided the key to his musical universe. In this masterful image of the “Nabi of beautiful icons” (also dubbed by Paul Ranson the “polychromopharmonic Nabi”), we find, in fact, a synthesis of the familiar musical practice that would surround the artist throughout his life, the role music played in his romantic and spiritual relationship with Marthe, the painter’s collaboration with musicians, and, finally, the resolutely contemporary aspect of his connection to music: the sheet music resting on the piano, this likely imaginary minuet by Princess Maleine—reveals, as music inspired by Maeterlinck’s first play, how the artist immediately engaged with the musical creativity of his time and identified with it both aesthetically and in the creative process itself. Denis reveals himself, in turn, as a “musician” painter, a painter who was a friend of musicians, and a painter inspired by music. A “musician” painter Judging by the place music held in Maurice Denis’s life, it may come as a surprise that the painter waited until October 1904 to explicitly articulate this in his Journal, writing: “Music, more and more, exerts a great power over my sensibility” (Denis, Journal, vol. I, p. 224). This resonance of music proved, in fact, to be fundamental and inseparable from a spiritual dimension that dated back to the painter’s childhood: it was through the music accompanying the Catholic liturgy that he first encountered musical expression. From a very early age, Denis displayed a faith whose depth could not fail to influence his aesthetic inclinations, but also to imbue his vision of art itself with a sense of the sacred. At the age of fourteen, the future painter described in his diary a religious ceremony and the role music played in it in terms that went beyond mere contemplation to reach an aesthetic perception. In 1912, he designed the “musical” set for the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées according to a religious schema: the prominence of the dome shape, a cruciform layout, and symbolism reflecting a true artistic mysticism. The circle is thus complete, from sacred music—perceived from the outset as an artistic creation—to the painting of a musical pantheon erected as a “spiritual” representation of the history of this art form. Throughout his life, Maurice Denis thus placed music at the heart of his creative work and his intimate perception of the world. The artist’s relationship with Marthe was, from the moment they met, placed under the auspices of music, and the Journal confirms this “sanctification” of love through musical communion. Thus, the