

Maternité au jardin.
1925
Maternité au jardin, executed in 1925, presents one of Maurice Denis's most intimate meditations on motherhood and the natural world. A tender figural composition unfolds within a garden setting, rendered through the soft tonal harmonies and devotional quietude that define Denis's mature lithographic work. The image carries the characteristic warmth of the Nabis tradition Denis helped to shape, where sacred and domestic subject matter merge in a language of gentle color, flattened form, and symbolic resonance. The garden here is not merely a backdrop but a living surround, binding the maternal figure to cycles of growth and grace that Denis returned to throughout his career. This impression belongs to the first state of two, distinguished by the remarque visible in the lower right corner, a detail that marks it among the earliest and most complete expressions of the composition. The edition was tightly controlled, with only 25 impressions pulled from this first state, against a total print run of 150 across both states. The sheet bears Denis's pencil signature and Roman numeral notation, along with the blind stamp of the Galerie des Peintres-Graveurs in Paris, a mark of the prestigious publishing context in which this work first circulated. It is catalogued as Cailler 148, situating it firmly within the established scholarly record of the artist's printed work. For collectors drawn to early twentieth-century French printmaking, this lithograph offers a rare combination of rarity, documentary completeness, and aesthetic refinement. Denis occupies a singular position in the history of modern art, acknowledged as both a founding theorist of Symbolism and a practitioner whose output remained deeply humanist and carefully crafted to the end. A first-state impression such as this, retained in fine condition on a generous sheet, represents a meaningful point of access to the intimate side of an artist whose influence on the course of European modernism was substantial and lasting.
- Medium
- Lithograph
- Sheet
- Signed
- Yes
- Location
- Libretis, Paris
- Spotted At
- Gallery · LibretisView on map
For Sale — €1500
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