Maurice Denis

Donated to the Musée d’Ixelles in 1906 for a room dedicated to his friend Octave Maus, this *Maternité* is one of many breastfeeding scenes painted by Maurice Denis. The French artist tirelessly photographed and painted his muse, Marthe Meurier, whom he married in 1893, as well as their many children. In this tender and intimate little painting, he depicts Marthe feeding their second daughter, Bernadette, known as Badette, born in April 1899. The motif of the mother nursing her child is part of a thousand-year-old tradition, evoking in Christianity the Virgin Mary nursing Jesus at her breast. By incorporating a ray of light that illuminates the white breast and the child’s head, Denis imbues his family life with a sacred significance – a central concern in the aesthetic project of this devout Catholic, who sought to ‘elevate beautiful things to the status of imperishable icons’. This Maternity also demonstrates the full modernity of his painting. A member of the avant-garde Nabi group seeking to liberate painting from mimetic constraints, Denis famously remarked in 1890 that ‘a painting (…) is essentially a flat surface covered with colours assembled in a certain order’. This stance is evident in this painting, whose surface is covered with countless commas and dashes of paint. Denis simplifies and stylises the forms, particularly the faces, which helps to enhance the universality of the scene. Whilst his travels in Italy reminded Denis of classical modelling (the figure of Martha, full of volume), he suggests the baby’s dress with a simple light flat area, punctuated by touches of blue and green. These splashes of colour blend into the mother’s dress, which is a complementary colour – a pictorial expression of parenthood. Through its marriage of extremely harmonious soft tones, this Maternity confirms the artist’s talent as a colourist. The art historian Catherine Lepdor, moreover, sees Denis as the ‘king of pink’, the colour forming the backdrop to this modern icon.  

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