The year 1895 was a key year in the life of Maurice Denis. On October 12, 1894, Marthe Denis gave birth to the couple’s first child, who suddenly passed away in February 1895. This marked the beginning of a period of doubt and bitterness for the painter, who was just 24 years old.
Wounded but comforted in his faith, he notes in his Diary (I, p. III): “Art remains the certain refuge, the hope of a reason in the life of here below and this consoling thought that a little beauty is thus manifested in our life, that we continue the work of the creation, the harmonious law of the universal life.
This is how Maurice Denis, using a reduced palette of muted tones, paints a surprisingly soothing self-portrait. A sensitive snapshot that agrees with Jan Verkade’s description of him, the “Obelisk Nabi”, a few years earlier: “A young beard framed his full and pink cheeks; thick dark brown hair fell on his beautiful forehead below which two eyes, pure as those of a virgin and kind as those of a child, shone with a bright light. He looked like a young girl who had never left her mother, and his works gave that same impression.”
Maurice Denis (1870 – 1943), Portrait of the twenty-four years old painter by himself, 1895; Oil on canvas, 38 × 32 cm; Provenance: Private Collection, France
This painting remained in the model’s family to this day, and Maurice Denis affectionately dedicated it “to [his] Aunt Dihonisy,”, and it is to be seen in relation to two ambitious portraits of a couple painted shortly thereafter: the Portrait of Martha and Maurice of 1896 (former Josefowitz Collection) and the Portrait of the Artist and His Wife at Twilight or Dessert in the Garden of 1897 (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Musée Maurice Denis).
Source: Auguttes
