AMSTERDAM.- The exhibition Maurice Denis: Amour opened at the Van Gogh Museum on Saturday 12 February. This presentation focuses on the print series Amour (1899), which consists of 13 colour lithographs with sophisticated colours and delicate, chalky lines. Artist Maurice Denis based his prints on poetic passages in his journal expressing his love for Marthe Meurier, who would later become his wife and regular model. Denis spent years creating the perfect series. Maurice Denis: Amour therefore features not only the 13 colour lithographs, but also 45 colourful drawings and trial proofs on loan from various European and American collections, united for the first time in this way.

From love poetry to series

Maurice Denis was part of Les Nabis, a group of young painter-printmakers. Around 1900, the group wholeheartedly embraced the technique of colour lithography. The print series Amour is considered to be the highlight of Denis’ oeuvre. When making the Amour series, the artist was inspired by the love poetry that he wrote in his journal for his future wife Marthe Meurier, shortly after their first meeting. ‘Elle est plus belle. ELLE EST PLUS BELLE’, scrawled Denis many times in his journal in capital letters. Lines from his poems would later serve as titles for his prints, which he wrote under the artworks. Denis called, for example, the eighth print in the series ‘Elle était plus belle que les rêves’ (She Was More Beautiful than Dreams). Fleur Roos Rosa de Carvalho, Senior Curator: ‘Amour features various hidden references to the love between Maurice and Marthe, like little portraits and dozens of roses, Marthe’s favourite flowers. The series as a whole is a monumental ode to his love for his wife; as a gesture, comparable to the Taj Mahal’.

Collaboration with a master printer

Denis spent years creating the perfect series, making countless sketches, drawings and trial proofs. Working together with Auguste Clot – a master printer whose help was indispensable when translating the designs to the lithography stones – Denis endlessly refined the colours and textures, ultimately making a series of prints with the softness and refinement of a pastel or watercolour drawing. The creative process – from the initial designs to the final prints – took more than three years. The exhibition uses sketches, trial proofs and journal quotes to introduce every step of the process. This is the first time that preliminary watercolour drawings from collections including that of Museum Maurice Denis are being shown alongside the final Amour series from the Van Gogh Museum collection.

Research project

The Getty Paper Project and the Elise Wessels Foundation supported research conducted by the Van Gogh Museum into the working processes of the four Nabis artists (Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Ker-Xavier Roussel and Édouard Vuillard) when they made their lithograph series for art trader and publisher Ambroise Vollard. He believed that these prestigious projects were just as important as his trade in paintings by Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. Amour is the second in a series of presentations at the museum focusing on one of the four aforementioned artists; an exhibition on Vuillard went on display in 2019. The eventual research findings will be bundled in an academic catalogue.