148 - Nativity [Vienna, detail of the interior of Saint-Martin Church in Vienna], 1938

Nativity [Vienna, detail of the interior of Saint-Martin Church in Vienna], 1938 Oil on original canvas 76 x 97 cm Signed and dated lower left: MAV. DENIS 1938 Provenance: Maurice Denis Collection Private collection Exhibitions: Maurice Denis was represented at the New York World’s Fair in the French Pavilion. 1939 New York Customs label on the back: New York World’s Fair 1939 Exhibited at the Minneapolis Art Institute, according to a label on the stretcher Exhibited 1942–1943 in Quimper, Saluden, according to the label on the back of the painting: “Quimper Exhibition No. 2” Exhibition “Le matin de la vie” by Maurice Denis; Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, 2011; Tokyo, Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Museum of Art, 2011; Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, 2012, p. 163 A certificate confirming inclusion in the catalog raisonné of Maurice Denis’s work may be issued to the purchaser upon request to the Maurice Denis Committee. “ “If there is one characteristic and certain aspect of the general evolution of art over the past fifty years, it is that it has increasingly tended to move away from naturalism and the literal sense of reality toward the spiritual, toward synthesis, and toward decorative expression ” “The New Directions of Christian Art,” 1919.