Dread
Currently on view
Maurice Denis (1870 - 1943), 1891
oil on canvas, 40.5 cm x 32.5 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
This painting was originally much bigger. Its size made it unsalable, so Denis cut out the section showing these girls. We know what the original composition looked like. It went back to his illustration for a stage play by Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949): L’Intruse (Intruder). The girls are aghast at the intrusion of Death after their mother has given birth.
The pale green faces and elongated hands contrast with the vivid floral pattern behind them. Such simplified forms and decorative areas of flat colour were typical of the work of a group of artists known as the Nabis. Denis was a leading member of it.
- Object number
- s0423V1991
- Dimensions
- 40.5 cm x 32.5 cm, 70 cm x 63 cm
- Provenance
- Sold by the artist to Arsène Alexandre probably during the exhibition in Paris, Galerie Le Barc de Boutteville (Première Exposition des Peintres Impressionnistes et Symbolistes), cat. 19 (Motif d’effroi), 1892; probably Gustave Fayet; after his death on 24 September 1925 probably inherited by his daughter, Yseult Alban d’Andoque de Sériège; Galerie Berès, Paris, by 1967; sold by Galerie Berès to Pierre David-Weill, Paris; donated by Pierre David-Weill to baroness de Montesquiou-Fezensac, in or before 1970; sold by baroness de Montesquiou-Fezensac to Francis Lombrail, Enghien; acquired from Francis Lombrail by Marc Blondeau, Paris, in or before 1991; sold by a private collector through Galerie Hopkins-Thomas, Paris to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam, 25 July 1991; since then on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
- artist
- Maurice Denis
- Credits (obliged to state)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Tokyo, Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Prints in Paris 1900: From Elite to the Street, 18 October 2017-8 January 2018
Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten (Gent), De wereld van George Minne en Maurice Maeterlinck, 22 October 2011-19 February 2012, no. 45
Rovereto, Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Maurice Denis. Maestro del Simbolismo internazionale, 23 July-23 September 2007, no. 21
Rovereto, Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Maurice Denis : maestro del Simbolismo internazionale, 23 June-23 September 2007
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Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris-Bruxelles, Bruxelles-Paris, 18 March-14 July 1997
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Maurice Denis 1870-1943, 7 July-17 September 1995, no. 42
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