Maternite, Anne Marie et Marthe a la Bague Ovale 1902

Maurice Denis’ ‘Maternité, Anne Marie et Marthe à la Bague Ovale’—or ‘Motherhood, Anne Marie and Marthe with the Oval Ring’—is a small painting probably made with oils on board. You can tell, from the quietness of the scene, that this painting came from a real place inside the artist. Denis was part of the Nabis, a group of young painters interested in dreams and symbols. Perhaps he hoped that this intimate scene of mother and child might evoke something of their interiority. It's as though Denis wanted to distill the feeling of tenderness into a visual form. The mother’s plum-coloured dress is so simply drawn. She seems transfixed as she gazes on her child. Her attention is echoed in the upturned gaze of the baby, wrapped in a swathe of pastel pink fabric. The painting feels almost like a relic, evoking the feeling of a past moment caught in time. Painters are constantly looking at each other and learning from each other. The conversation never ends, and this painting feels like one small part of it.