95 - Family Portrait [Blue and Yellow], 1902

Family Portrait [Blue and Yellow], 1902 Oil on canvas 82 x 94 cm Signed upper left: MAUD 1902 Bears old exhibition labels on the back Provenance: Maurice Denis Collection Private collection Exhibitions: Salon des Indépendants, Paris, 1902; no. 559 “Portrait” (“Portrait painted from life”) Exhibition of German and French Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists, 1903, Grand Ducal Museum, Weimar; No. 15 (appears in a group photograph of the exhibition held in the Weimar Museum archives) Internationale Kunstaustellung, Mannheim, 1907, No. 1894, (Family Portrait—certainly our painting) Salon d’Automne, 1912, Paris, no. 91 (“Portrait of Mrs. D. and Her Children (painting) attributed to Mr. Maurice Denis”) Venice Biennale, 1914, no. 1 (Our painting appears in a photograph from the Biennale archives) Venice Biennale, 1922, no. 7, “Ritratto di famiglia 1902” (appears in a group photograph of the exhibition from the Biennale archives) Maurice Denis Exhibition, Pavillon de Marsan, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1924, no. 110 (commented on by M. de Castéra in his catalog: “Mrs. Denis with three of her children, in shades of blue”) Salon des Indépendants, 1926, Paris, No. 717, “Family Portrait, 1902” (label on the back) Maurice Denis Exhibition, 1945, Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, No. 85 Maurice Denis Exhibition; 1945–46, Provincial Museums, no. 13 Maurice Denis and the Nabis Exhibition, 1967, Angers; no. 16, reproduced in black and white Maurice Denis Exhibition, 1970; Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, no. 165, reproduced in black and white Maurice Denis Exhibition, 1975, Honfleur; no. 49 Maurice Denis Exhibition, 1981, Tokyo and Kyoto, no. 56, reproduced in black and white Salon d’Automne, “From Cézanne to Matisse,” 1983, Paris, no. 13 (label on the back with no. 14) Maurice Denis Exhibition, 1985, Alençon, no. 15, reproduced in color, p. 21 (and reproduced on the invitation card) Maurice Denis Exhibition, 1870–1943; Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts—Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum—Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery—Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum; 1994/1995; no. 113, reproduced in color (“Large Family Portrait, Blue and Yellow”) *The Rise and Fall of Modernism*, 1999, Weimar, no. 60, reproduced in color on page 134, and reproduced in situ at Denis’s home on p. 91 Maurice Denis 2006–07 Musée d’Orsay, Paris—Montreal Museum of Fine Arts—Rovereto Museum of Modern Art, Cat. 74, reproduced on p. 213. Exhibition *Enfances*, 2009, Musée de Rodez, reproduced on p. 47 Exhibition *Maurice Denis: Le Bonheur rêvé*, 2021, Musée du Prieuré Maurice Denis, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, reproduced on p. 91 Exhibition “Maurice Denis: The 1920s, The Radiance of the South,” 2025, Jules Cheret Museum of Fine Arts, Nice, no. 7, p. 24, reproduced in color Bibliography: Julius Meier-Graefe, *Entwicklungsgeschichte der modernen Kunst* [History of the Development of Modern Art], Stuttgart, J. Hoffmann Publishers, 1904, vol. 1, p. 362 André Peraté; *Art and Artists*, 1923, p. 71 François Fosca; *Maurice Denis*, 1924, p. 8, reproduced in black and white on p. 27 Suzanne Barazzetti, *Maurice Denis*, 1945, pp. 37, 228–229, 282 Jean Paul Bouillon, *Maurice Denis*, 1993; Skira, reproduced in color on p. 106 Jean Paul Bouillon, “Arabesques,” 1995, Montreal, reproduced in black and white, p. 381 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. “Sublimating everyday life—that is the idea that has guided Maurice Denis’s art from the very beginning. This *Grand Portrait de famille* is an example of that. Marthe and their first three daughters—Bernadette (born in 1899), leaning on the left in the foreground, Anne-Marie (born in 1901) in her mother’s arms, and Noële (born in 1896) standing behind the chair—are gathered in their apartment on Rue Mareil, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The wallpaper featuring pink boats—which the painter had designed in 1893 and used to cover the dining room walls—is easily recognizable. The arabesques complement other decorative motifs, such as the girls’ blue-and-white checkered dresses, the orange tablecloth with white polka dots draped over the fireplace, and the flowers in a vase, whose petals are reflected in the mirror. Through the richness, the balance of the composition, and the harmony of the colors, Maurice Denis transforms this intimate canvas into a painting imbued with classicism, in the tradition of Italian Renaissance works. Jeanne Pillon-Megale in Johanne Lindskog, Jeanne Pillon-Megale, and Fabienne Stahl, Maurice Denis in the 1920s: L’Éclat du Midi: [exhibition, Nice, Jules Chéret Museum of Fine Arts, November 8, 2025 – March 8, 2026], Cinisello Balsamo, Milan: Silvana Éditoriale, 2025, p. 24.