167 - Male Nude Academy, 1926

Male Nude Academy, 1926 Pencil on paper 47.6 x 33.9 cm Vertical stamp with the monogram MAUD in the lower right corner This drawing is likely a preparatory study for “Blessed Are Those Who Mourn,” part of the major theme of the Beatitudes, conceived by Maurice Denis for the decoration of the Priory Chapel in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Provenance: Maurice Denis Collection Private collection “In Maurice Denis’s time, the study of the nude from a live model was one of the cornerstones of drawing instruction. But it was also the ‘scandalous’ phase of art studies—the one that worried families and stirred up certain emotions in the students. At that time, the naked body was still carefully concealed by clothing and protected by social conventions. The fact that students and models mingled in the studios was seen as a sign of ‘frivolity and debauchery.’ Maurice Denis’s deep faith and artistic culture naturally drew him toward religious painting and the very pure art of Fra Angelico. The discovery of “the studio” was for him a source of both meditation and unease: “I used to say, ‘The nude is chaste, the nude is beautiful,’ and yet I did not know it. Today I know it and I love it; but, alas! Why must it not be chaste in reality, and why must aesthetic pleasures require immodesty? And it is these girls who, to my ideal of the Virgin in a white gown, have added this other ideal of the naked Virgin.” The study of drawing from the nude is therefore not a trivial or mundane subject. Through the nude, the artist approaches the truth of being—the misery or glory of a body suddenly exposed to the gaze of others—in a way that is, curiously, even more poignant than in portraiture. Despite the criticism later leveled at the education he received at the École des Beaux-Arts, Denis pays tribute to one of his professors, Gustave Boulanger, from whom he drew several “sound ideas” about drawing: “I remember one Tuesday when he was correcting our work. It was Mercédès who was on the table. A rough composition on my easel. He pointed out the legs in a mundane drawing. ‘When you start something, look for the character right away. Take your time. But make sure your initial sketch—even the first one, even the most tentative one—resembles the model. Character above all.” He added in his good-natured voice: “That’s how you’ll avoid falling into banal painting, into tedious painting, into the pompier style.” He was sincere enough to understand that drawing is all about composition, character, and values—quite simply; he also knew that the simplest is the best.” These concepts were immediately grasped by Maurice Denis, who imbues his nudes with profound individuality and knows how to convey an undeniable expressive power to every part of his models’ bodies. The face is never neglected, and the gaze corresponds to the meaning of the pose. Each nude is a genuine attempt to capture the language of the body. ” Agnès Delannoy, *Maurice Denis: The Draftsman. The Revealed Work*, Paris, Somogy Editions d’art, 2006, page 30.