1899
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
On the Pale Silver Sofa is a 1899 by Maurice Denis, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a woman in a long white dress sitting on a pale silver sofa, her face turned away. This painting is part of a series where the artist painted his wife, Marthe, in different rooms. The titles came from his personal journal, so the scenes feel like quiet, private moments. The colors are soft and flat, almost like a dream. If you like this, look up the technique called *impasto*—thick paint that gives texture to surfaces like this sofa.
Maurice Denis belonged to the Nabis, a group of artists who came together in 1889 to pursue a radical new style informed by subjective experience and emotion. This print is from a series in which Denis explored his devotion to his wife, Marthe, by depicting her in a variety of settings alongside titles drawn from his own journal. The vague but evocative images were meant to encourage the viewer to draw connections to the theme and meditate on its meaning.
Maurice Denis was a devout Catholic and often drew visual connections between his wife, Marthe, the subject of this print series, and the Virgin Mary.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Maurice Denis (French: ; 25 November 1870 – 13 November 1943) was a French painter, decorative artist, and writer.
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