Les Attitudes sont Faciles et Chastes. The Poses are Relaxed and Pure. by Maurice Denis, 1870-1943

Maurice Denis, 1870-1943
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Les Attitudes sont Faciles et Chastes. The Poses are Relaxed and Pure.

Original lithograph in five colours. 1895. Signed with Denis' monogram in the stone. A proof before the edition. Published edition of 100 impressions. Drawn and printed at the studio of Auguste Clot, 1895. Issued by Ambroise Vollard in the series: Amour, Paris 1899. Edition first sold by Vollard in 1911.
Ref: Cailler - Denis L'Oeuvre Gravé no 109.

Beautiful impression with excellent unfaded colours. On unusual slightly textured double wove paper, probably selected for proofing. Generally excellent condition. Wide probably full margins, as printed. Sheet: 20 1/8 x 15 3/4ins. Image to borderline: 15 1/4 x 10 7/8ins (388x278mm)

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The series of colour lithographs that Denis drew at the end of the 1890?s under the collective title of 'Amour? includes some of the most beautiful and evocative images of the Nabis period in the medium of the colour lithograph. None is more famous, or more expressive of the poetic symbolism of this era, than 'Les Attitudes sont Faciles et Chastes?, above.

Denis was one of the founders of the Nabis movement, along with Bonnard, Vuillard and Roussel, and his art expresses clearly their admiration for the intellectual rather than visual emotion of the Symbolists and for the expressive use of shape, pattern and colour which they learned from Gauguin. In this composition, with its flowing and rhythmic shapes, its deliberate use of repetitive pattern, and its soft but wonderful glowing colour, Denis created one of the great images of Nabis graphic art.

Denis drew the series of Amour lithographs for Vollard, who was then at the height of his enthusiasm for colour prints. Denis drew on the stones at the studio of Clot, working there at the same time as his friends Bonnard and Vuillard. Although he competed the images and the editions in 1898 Vollard did not in fact issue the set until some years later. The impression above is a proof apart from the issued edition, probably a studio trial proof, on a different heavier-weight paper than that used for the edition itself.