Easter Mystery (Mystère de Pâques)

1891

Maurice Denis (French, 1870–1943)

Status: On View, Gallery 244
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Maurice Denis
Title: Easter Mystery (Mystère de Pâques)
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1891
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed vertically, lower right: MAVD1891
Dimensions: 104 × 102 cm (41 × 40 1/8 in.); Framed: 116.3 × 114.3 × 7 cm (45 3/4 × 45 × 2 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Through prior acquisition of William Wood Prince
Reference Number: 1994.431
Copyright: © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Julius Meier-Graefe, Entwickelungsgeschichte der modernen Kunst, vol. 1 (Stuttgart: Hoffmann, 1904), p. 361.
François Fosca, Maurice Denis: Peintres français nouveaux, no. 17 (Paris: Nouvelle Revue Française, 1924), p. 20 (ill.).
Suzanne Barazzetti-Demoulin, Maurice Denis (Paris: Editions Bernard Grasset, 1945), pp. 64, 142, 278 (ill.).
Maurice Malingue, “Petits et grands Nabis,” in L’Œil 62 (February 1960), p. 41 (ill.).
Kathryn Porter Aichele, “Maurice Denis and George Desvallières: From Symbolism to Sacred Art” (Ph.D. diss., Bryn Mawr College, 1975), pp. 31-36, fig. 8.
Stuart Preston, “Review of Maurice Denis. Paris, Galerie Huguette Berès,” in Burlington Magazine 134 (1992), p. 547, cat. no. 8.
Jean-Paul Bouillon, Maurice Denis (Geneva: Skira, 1993), pp. 6-7, 10, 24, 31-2, 36, 203 (ill.).
Guy Cogeval, “Le Sacre du Quotidien,” in Connaissance des arts, no. 510 (October 1994), pp. 94, 96.
Guy Cogeval, Claire Denis, Thérèse Barruel, et al., Maurice Denis, 1870-1943, exh. cat. (Lyon: Musée des Beaux-Arts, 1994), pp. 207-8, no. 76 (ill.) [not exhibited].
Gloria Groom, “Acquisitions in Focus: The Art Institute of Chicago,” Apollo 142, 406 (1995), pp. 59-61, fig. 3.
Agnès Delannoy, Maurice Denis, 1870-1943 (Paris: Cercle d’art, 2004), no. 7 (ill.).
Anastasia Zelvenskaïa, “Russia,” in Maurice Denis: Earthly Paradise (1870-1943), ed. Jean Paul Bouillon, exh. cat. (Paris: Musée d’Orsay, 2006), p. 94.

Paris, Pavillon de la ville de Paris aux Champs-Élysées, Société des artistes indépendants: 8me Exposition, March 19-April 27, 1892, no. 350.
Venice, La Biennale di Venezia, XIII Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte della Città di Venezia, April 15-October 31, 1922, cat. no. 5.
Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Pavillon de Marsan, Exposition Maurice Denis, 1888-1924, April 11-May 11, 1924, cat. no. 19.
Paris, Grand Palais, Trente ans d’Art Indépendant: Rétrospective de la Société des Artistes Indépendants de 1884-1914, February 20-March 21, 1926, cat. no. 714.
Paris, Galerie d’Art Braun, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard et son époque, April 8-28, 1932, cat. no. 13.
Paris, Beaux-Arts, Société des Amis d’Eugène Delacroix, Gauguin, ses amis, l’École de Pont-Aven, et l’Académie Julian, February-March 1934, cat no. 31.
Paris, Petit Palais, Les Maîtres de l’Art Indépendant 1895-1937, June-October 1937, cat. no. 29.
Paris, Orangerie des Tuileries, Eugène Carrière et le symbolisme, December 1949-January 1950, cat. no. 270.
Paris, Bibliothèque de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Maurice Denis, 1870-1943: Œuvre Gravé, Lithographies, April 24-May 9, 1954, cat. no. 3.
Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Bonnard, Vuillard et les Nabis (1888-1903), June 8-October 2, 1955, cat. no. 89.
Paris, Orangerie des Tuileries, Maurice Denis, June 3-August 31, 1970, cat. no. 26.
Honfleur, Salles d’Exposition du Grenier à Sel, Exposition Maurice Denis, 1870-1943, July 26-August 31, 1975, cat. no. 10.
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Musée Départemental du Prieuré, L’Éclatement de l’Impressionnisme, October 13, 1982-January 16, 1983, cat. no. 61.
Paris, Galerie Huguette Berès, Maurice Denis, June 5-July 13, 1992, cat. no. 8.
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Die Nabis: Propheten der Moderne, May 28-August 15, 1993; Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, September 21, 1993-January 3, 1994; cat. no. 34.
Paris, Musée d’Orsay, Maurice Denis: Earthly Paradise (1870-1943), October 31, 2006-January 21, 2007; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, February 22-May 20, 2007, cat. no. 20.

Maurice Denis (died 1943), Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Paris [according to Meier-Graefe 1904]; by descent to his son, Jean-Baptiste Denis, Rouen and Paris [lent to Paris 1955; see also letter of December 7, 1994, from Luc Bellier, Galerie Bellier, to Gloria Groom, copy in curatorial file]; Galerie Bellier, Paris, as agent for Jean-Baptiste Denis; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1994.

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