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, 7.5 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
Paris, Musée d'Orsay, Maurice Denis : earthly paradise (1870-1943), 31 October 2006-21 January 2007, no. 21
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Musée départemental Maurice Denis "Le Prieuré", L' Oeuvre dévoilé : Maurice Denis dessinateur, 28 October 2006-21 January 2007
Paris, Musée d'Orsay, Le théâtre de l'oeuvre 1893-1900 : naissance du théâtre moderne, 12 April-3 July 2005, no. 12
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
Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, Maurice Denis 1870-1943, 21 April-18 June 1995, no. 42
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Maurice Denis 1870-1943, 22 January-2 April 1995, no. 42
Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts (Lyon), Maurice Denis 1870-1943, 29 September-18 December 1994, no. 42
Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Nabis 1888-1900, 21 September 1993-3 January 1994, no. 39
Zurich, Kunsthaus Zürich, Die Nabis : Propheten der Moderne, 28 May-15 August 1993, no. 39
Shimonoseki, Shimonoseki City Art Museum, Gauguin et les Nabis, 12 April-12 May 1991, no. V-2
Ōsaka, Navio Museum of Art, Gauguin et les Nabis, 8 March-7 April 1991, no. V-2
Niigata, Niigata Daiwa, Gauguin et les Nabis, 2-15 January 1991, no. V-2
Tokyo, Parthenon Tama, Gauguin et les Nabis, 31 October-2 December 1990, no. V-2
Paris, Galerie Berès, Au temps des Nabis, 1990, no. 45
New York, Wildenstein, La Revue Blanche : Paris in the days of Post-Impressionism and Symbolism, 17 November-December 1983, no. zonder nr.
Paris, Le Barc de Boutteville, Peintres impressionnistes et symbolistes (1e exposition), December 1890-January 1891, no. 19
Leeuw, Ronald de, Aanwinsten/Acquisitions, 1991, p. 54-55, 69
