1898
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Our Souls, in Languorous Gestures is a 1898 by Maurice Denis, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A woman plays a piano in a sunlit room. Pink roses sit on the piano. A ruffled lampshade glows behind her. This is a lithograph from Denis’s 1899 series *Love*. It shows women making music at home, not in concert halls. That mattered in 1898—music at home was “amateur,” done by women behind closed doors. Try looking up Maurice Denis (French, 1870–1943) next.
Women in domestic interiors and protected gardens provided the subject matter for Denis’s portfolio of 12 color lithographs entitled Love . The feminine associations with the interior illustrated in Our Souls, in Slight Gestures are underscored by the ruffled lampshade, roses, and arabesques on the piano shawl. Throughout the 19th century, women played music, with few exceptions, at home. Within these confines, their accomplishments were relegated to that of the amateur, performing for friends but not for money or public acclaim.
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.
See the richer artist pageYour cart is empty
Explore artworks →
