The Gathering 1907

Maurice Denis, sometime around the turn of the century, made this small oil on canvas called The Gathering. I love how the paint kinda floats on the surface. It’s not too thick, not too thin, a middle way kinda paint. This isn’t a painting that's trying to trick you into thinking it’s a window, or a mirror, like some other paintings. Instead, the whole image feels built from a gathering of gentle touches and dabs of colour. A soft haze of whites and blues, a touch of peach, like a memory of spring. You can feel him in the making of it. I wonder what Denis was thinking as he applied those strokes? Maybe he was thinking of Poussin? It feels like he's asking, what does it mean to make a classical scene, now? I bet other artists looked at this painting and saw something they could use in their own work too. We’re always taking cues from each other, like one big conversation across time.