Maurice DENIS

Autograph letter dated and signed by Maurice Denis, 20 lines in black ink, regarding an article he must provide to a magazine.
Folding trace inherent to envelope insertion.
The painter profusely thanks his correspondent for the interest shown to him: "Je vous remercie de suivre avec bienveillance toutes mes "productions". Vous accepterez celle-ci - d'ailleurs promise à la vie depuis trop longptemps - et vous lui ferez un sort, toujours dans le même sentiment amical." (I thank you for following all my "productions" with such kindness. You will accept this one - which has been promised to life for far too long - and you will give it its due, always in the same friendly spirit.)
Maurice Denis explains the content of his article: "C'est un fragment - ou plutôt deux fragments d'une conférence que j'ai donnée à cercle catholique d'étudiants "La maison" rue du Montparnasse. Actualité de Poussin : je vous avais promis quelque chose sur la Rétrospective que je n'ai point fait, et finalement c'est cette conférence qui exprime l'essentiel de nos impressions sur la rétrospective." (It is a fragment - or rather two fragments from a lecture I gave to the Catholic students' circle "La maison" on rue du Montparnasse. The relevance of Poussin: I had promised you something on the Retrospective which I did not do, and finally it is this lecture that expresses the essence of our impressions on the retrospective.)

First edition on ordinary paper.
Bradel binding in brown half-cloth, smooth spine decorated with black fillets, title in offset black letters on spine, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns of gilt and moiré effect paper, original wrappers preserved.
Work illustrated with two vignettes by Maurice Denis.

First edition.
Contributions by Henri Albert "Auguste Strindberg", Victor Barrucand "Buddhist Writings", Gustave Kahn "The Mad King (continued)", Romain Coolus "Dramatic Notes"...
Minor worming and stains to boards.
Our copy is complete with the original print by Maurice Denis.

New edition of the French translation illustrated with 70 original color lithographs by Maurice Denis, one of 204 copies on Holland paper, ours unnumbered, the only issue after 35 Japan and 20 other Holland hors commerce copies.
Handsome copy despite very occasional worming.
The work has the peculiarity of being dated 1939 on the front cover, dated 1936 on the title page and dated 1942 on the colophon page.
The 70 lithographs break down as follows: 13 full-page in color, 2 in color in the text and the others in black, in blue or in 2 tones.
Our copy is complete, at the end, with the double-page table of lithographs hors-texte.

First edition on ordinary paper, only 100 copies were printed on Arches laid paper as deluxe copies.
Autograph inscription signed by Maurice Denis to Jacques-Emile Blanche: " à Jacques Blanche en toute sympathie d'art, et peut-être de pensée..." ["to Jacques Blanche with all artistic sympathy, and perhaps of thought..."]
Minimal worming on the endpapers.

“L'Eau” – Catalogue of the exhibition devoted to water at the Georges Bernheim jeune gallery from 26 June to 13 July 1911
Galerie Georges Bernheim jeune &Cie

| Paris 1911 | 12.5 x 16.5 cm | stapled

First edition of this exhibition catalogue showing 63 works to do with water at the Georges Bernheim jeune gallery from 26 June to 13 July 1911.
A good and rare copy despite a faint marginal dampstain to upper cover.

Among the exhibiting artists were: Pierre Bonnard, Eugène Boudin, Paul Cézanne,
Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Henri-Edmond Cross, Honoré Daumier, Edgar Degas, Eugène Delacroix, Maurice Denis, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Matisse Maximilien Luce, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes,
Auguste Renoir, Théo Van Rysselberghe, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Alfred Sisley, Félix Vallotton, édouard Vuillard, and others.

Sagesse
Ambroise Vollard | Paris 1911 | 22.5 x 29 cm | morocco with slipcase
Illustrated edition with 95 original compositions (borders, title headers and tail-pieces) of which 72 are in color by Maurice Denis, one of 210 numbered copies on Holland.
Bound in strips of half caramel morocco, spine decorated with wavy arabesques bordered with grey fillets and mosaics of pieces of Havana brown, autumn leaf color, brown and cream morocco, gilt name of the illustrator at the foot, grey fillets framing the marbled paper boards, pastedowns in brown paper, covers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, slipcase edged in caramel morocco, marbled paper boards, beige felt interior, binding signed Miguet.
Very handsome copy of this important artist’s book particularly representative of Maurice Denis' Nabi period, «that where the freshness of invention unites with a symbolist workmanship to give a pure note of its own» (cf François Chapon, Le Peintre et le Livre, 1870-1970, pp. 68-72.)
Maurice Denis’s signature on the print details page with this note «Copy of M. J. Guiffrey.»
Art historian, Jules Guiffrey was the manager of Gobelins and the founder of the Société de l’histoire de l’art français (French art history society).
Endpapers very lightly and partially shaded.
Beautiful copy of this important artist’s book set in an elegant mosaic binding by Miguet.

Rare first edition of the double invitation programme to a "Groupe des Six" concert on June 19, 1920, and to the second "Jeune Peinture française" exhibition from June 17 to July 4, 1920 at the Galerie Manzi-Joyant et Cie.
This document combines a musical event (with works by Francis Poulenc, Louis Durey, Arnold Schoenberg, Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud and Germaine Tailleferre) with a paintings exhibition by Paul Cézanne, Auguste Renoir, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Félix Vallotton, Paul Sérusier and Paul Signac, among others, as well as sculptures by Aristide Maillol and Antoine Bourdelle.
The program announces the avant-garde concert of the "Groupe des Six" formed the same year by poet Jean Cocteau. It was part of a long series of memorable performances organized since 1917 by the young pianist-composers of the "Groupe des Six", where music was played and poems declaimed (this program also mentions the reading of Guillaume Apollinaire's Bestiaire and four poems by Paul Claudel).
On the reverse is an invitation for four people to the second exhibition of the "Jeune Peinture Française" group presided by Pierre Bonnard and Auguste Renoir.

Complete collection in volume of the magazine L'image, published between 1896 and 1897. 12 issues published, well complete of its copy number, enriched by an exceptional autograph dedication of the author of the directors of publication Tony Beltrand, Auguste Lepère, Leon Ruffe, Jules Rais , to Monsieur Floury, the publisher of the magazine. Personal copy of the editor of the magazine, Henri Floury (handwritten in pencil repeated several times in the lower margin of the inset "QUOTE THE MENTION").
Well complete covers illustrated at the end of the volume, made by masters of the time (Toulouse-Lautrec, Alfons Mucha).
(LUXURY EDITION TAKEN 100 EXAMPLES ON CHINA containing a separate print on China of all the engravings and smokes of all the plates before the text, one of the 12 copies on China of the number-copy ???)

Le Voyage d'Urien [Urien's Voyage]
First edition, one of 300 numbered copies on vergé crème paper printed on 25 May 1893, by Paul Schmidt, typographer, and Edw. Ancourt lithographer. A few copies printed on chine and japon paper.
Brown morocco by Gruel, spine in six compartments, date at foot, pastedowns lined with red morocco with gilt fillet frame, brown silk endpapers, double fillet to edges of boards, gilt roulettes to head- and tail-pieces, covers and spine preserved, all edges gilt, brown morocco-edged slipcase.
Occasional light spotting.
This work was conceived and executed in collaboration with Maurice Denis, who illustrated it with 31 original lithographs printed in two tones, the background being now ochre, now light green. That member of the Nabi group managed to free himself of all descriptive servitude in order better to join the text as co-creator.
Handsome autograph inscription signed by André Gide to Edouard Picard in ink to half-title.
Le Voyage d'Urien is one of the great illustrated books in the tradition of painter's books begun by Édouard Manet, Charles Cros and Stéphane Mallarmé in 1874-1875. The collaboration between the painter and the author proved very close. “This book is the most heightened mark of Symbolism, the ratification by the Nabis of the principle of dialogue inherent to the book” (Yves Peyré). This journey “of nothing” [“du rien”] is an ironic Odyssey written “as a reaction to the naturalist school,” where a few young people in search of “glorious destinies” set off on allegorical wanderings, culminating in the frozen wastes of sterility.
A fine copy handsomely bound by Gruel.
Naville, Bibliographie des écrits d'André Gide, nº VI.- Chapon, Le Peintre et le livre, 1870-1970, pp. 38-41.- Peyré, Peinture et poésie, le dialogue par le livre, 1874-2000, n° 4 et pp. 105-106.- The Artist and the Book, 1860-1960, Boston, n° 76.