Background
Maurice Denis was born on November 25, 1870 in Granville, Manche, France.
Maurice Denis was born on November 25, 1870 in Granville, Manche, France.
Denis was accepted as a student at one of the most prestigious Paris schools, the Lycée Condorcet, where he excelled at philosophy. However, he decided to leave the school at the end of 1887 and in 1888 enrolled in Académie Julian to prepare for the entrance examination to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. There he studied with the painter and theorist Jules Joseph Lefebvre. He passed the entrance examination for the Beaux-Arts in July 1888, and passed another examination in November to receive his baccalaureate in philosophy.
Inspired by Giotto and Piero della Francesca, Denis carried on Gauguin's ideas of simplification and lyrical strength, founding the school of Nabism, and brought about a revival of decorative mural painting, both ecclesiastical and secular. Among his best-known works are Spring (1897), murals for the Church in Le Vesinet (1901 - 1903), and the ceiling of the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris (1913), representing the Dance, the Symphony, the Opera, and the Lyrical Drama. His art theories, developed in two publications, Theories (1913) and Nouvelles Theories (1922), exerted a considerable influence on younger artists.
Denis married to Marthe Meurier in 1893. They had seven children.
