IMAGE DETAILS

Galerie Berès

Maurice Denis (Granville 1870-1943 Paris)
Les Fées, circa 1891
Oil on cardboard
23 x 30.3 cm
Signed lower left 'MAVD'; titled upper right 'LES FEES'
Provenance: Arthur Huc
Literature: Le Talisman de Serusier, une prophétie de la couleur, Musée Pont-Aven, 30 June 2018-6 January 2019, p. 98, n° 42
Exhibitions: Au temps des Nabis, Paris, Huguette Berès, 29 May-20 July 1990, n° 46; Maurice Denis, Paris, Huguette Berès, 4 June-22 July 1992, n° 14; Le Talisman de Serusier, une prophétie de la couleur, Musée Pont-Aven, 30 June 2018-6 January 2019, p. 98, n° 42

1891 was a pivotal year in the life of the young French painter Maurice Denis. Painted in 1891, Les fées dates from the key moment when Denis's art was becoming more synthetic. He belonged to the young Nabis group, which was mainly concerned with decorative paintings. This scene, which is the 2nd version of the subject, is considered to be one of the most faithful to the spirit of Pont-Aven. The emerald of the meadow, the black of the forest edge, their counterpoint of ochres and yellows of the path, the black of four silhouettes, are they not echoes of Gauguin saying: ‘of colour alone as the language of the listening eye...’?

In this painting, executed in Brittany, Maurice Denis illustrates the tradition according to which ‘The Fairies’ made wishes when a child was born. The scene, set on the edge of the forest, their domain par excellence, shows, on the right, the young mother dressed in red and the nannies dressed in black and white presenting a small child to a group of four fairies dressed in black; two of them are wearing white headdresses. By using pure colours in large flat areas, Maurice Denis put into practice the theories he had made his own, ... the watchword, the common principle is to exalt colour and simplify form.

Arthur HUC, a French politician and journalist, was director of La Dépêche du Midi and organised the famous Nabis exhibition in Toulouse in 1894.

In 1892, Maurice Denis produced the only advertising poster he ever did for his newspaper.