Galerie Vollard, acquis auprès de l’artiste entre 1900 et 1904 (200 frs, Livre de stock B, n° 3438)

Collection Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939), (1922)

Collection Drouant-David (1945)

Collection Dr Robert Ducroquet, Paris (acquis avant 1963)

Vente Londres, Christie’s, Collection Robert Ducroquet, 8 novembre 1972, lot 118 

Vente Paris, Mes Loudmer, Poulain, Cornette de Saint-Cyr, 11 juin 1974, lot 10 

Collection Oscar Ghez, Genève (donation au Musée du Petit Palais, Genève)

Vente Londres, Sotheby's, Modern Art Foundation Genève, 4 juillet 1979, lot 235

Collection Samuel Josefowitz, Lausanne

Prêt de longue durée au Musée des Beaux-Arts de l’Ontario, Toronto (1980-2001)

Vente Londres, Christie's, 7 février 2007, lot 238 

Collection George Economou, Athènes

Vente Paris, Me Tajan, 8 décembre 2015, lot 4

Acquis lors de cette vente par l'actuel propriétaire

Collection Louis Grandchamp des Raux

Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Maurice Denis, juin 1945, n°36

Pont-Aven, Mairie de Pont-Aven, Gauguin et ses Amis, août-septembre 1961, n° 55, p.26

Mannheim, Städtische Kunsthalle, Nabis, octobre 1963 - janvier 1964, n°93 (selon une étiquette au dos)

Paris, Orangerie des Tuileries, Maurice Denis, juin-août 1970, n°82, p.42

Tokyo, Musée National d'Art Occidental, Kyoto, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Maurice Denis, septembre-octobre 1981, n°37, reproduit

Barcelone, Fundacio Catalunya La Pedrera, Les Nabis, de Bonnard à Vuillard, mars - juin 2026, p.236, reproduit en couleur p.117

Varsovie, Royal Łazienki Museum, The Nabis – Prophets of a New Art, juillet-septembre 2026

S. Barazzetti-Demoulin, Maurice Denis, 25 novembre 1870 - 13 novembre 1943, Grasset, Paris, 1945, p.215 et p.280, reproduit (entre les pages 216 et 217)

D. Delouche, Échos de Pont-Aven : P. Gauguin, E. Bernard, P. Sérusier, M. Maufra, M. Denis, Presses universitaires de Rennes 2, collection « Regards », Rennes, 1991, p.72

Cette œuvre sera incluse au catalogue raisonné des œuvres de Maurice Denis actuellement en préparation par Mesdames Claire Denis et Fabienne Stahl, sous le numéro n°895.0209.

Une attestation d'inclusion numérique de Mesdames Claire Denis et Fabienne Stahl sera remise à l'acquéreur.

The happy marriage of Maurice Denis to Marthe Meurier in 1893 was followed, in October of the following year, by the birth of their son Jean-Paul¹, which inspired the artist to create a series of paintings imbuing motherhood with a symbolic dimension. In a letter to his friend André Gide in January 1895, the painter wrote: “I must tell you about my work, which is that of a patient and meticulous worker, my very simple life, centred on the child, full of grace, that God has sent me, and on the light that all this casts on me, on life.”² It is likely that the artist painted our picture during this period, embodying the idea of happiness built around the intimacy of daily life and the family unit.

In this Maternité, Marthe holds her child against her chest, in a position of breastfeeding. The only element that can be identified is the window in the background, which is that of the apartment in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, visible in other works. The timelessness of the scene turns Marthe into a Madonna, without a specific date or precise location. She is flanked on the left by a little girl, Thérèse Watillaux, presented like an angel observing the child, and on the right by Eva, Marthe’s sister who watches over him, shown in profile in a position of adoration. Thérèse can be identified thanks to the portrait Fillette au Chat (Brême, Kunsthalle) painted by the artist the following year.

The hands of the four figures gracefully respond to each other, forming a subtle rosary. Heavily influenced by the Italian Primitives, and particularly by Fra Angelico (ill. 1), Maurice Denis seeks to reinterpret the great religious themes inherited from the past, integrating them into a resolutely contemporary sensibility and context. Family events, as well as depictions of his wife – symbol of fertility – and his children, are thus elevated to the status of the sacred, appearing as perfect embodiments of earthly happiness.

Among the Maternités produced by the artist in 1895, another composition, close in both format and composition, is today in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (fig. 2). In it, the chromatic contrasts are accentuated and the face of Thérèse Watillaux is more defined.

This work is signed, but not dated and is possibly a second version. This series of Maternités represents the culmination of the pictorial representation of those wondrous moments marked by birth (ill. 3). The newborn appears as an answer to the absurdity of existence, bearer of renewed hope and profound joy for the artist. Our painting is a deeply intimate work of remarkable intensity.

1. Tragiquement, l’enfant meurt en février 1895, des suites d’une grippe.

2. Maurice Denis - André Gide, Correspondance 1892-1945, Paris, éd. Pierre Masson & Carina Schäfer, Gallimard, 2006.

Fig. 1 : Fra Angelico, Madonna dell’Umiltà, circa 1433-1435, tempera sur bois, musée national d’Art de Catalogne, Barcelone

Fig. 2 : Maurice Denis, Maternité, 1895, huile sur toile, Museum of Fine Art, Budapest

Fig. 3 : Maurice Denis, Recueillement maternel, 1923, huile sur toile