What Do You See? The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Part I

This lot will be included in the forthcoming Maurice Denis catalogue Raisonné being prepared by Claire Denis and Fabienne Stahl. We wish to thank Ms. Marie-Claire Rodriguez for her kind assistance in cataloguing this work.

The present present lot is a study for Maurice Denis's Portrait de la Famille Castéra, a sensitive depiction of the family of French composer, René de Castéra (1873-1955). The Castéras were close friends and patrons of Denis, and regularly hosted and corresponded with him until his death in 1943. Like the finished portrait, the study is a hymn to familial intimacy and bourgeois life, executed in a Post-Impressionist style. Dating to 1921, the work offers a glimpse of Denis's process, and into the evolution of the composition. Notably, the present example omits Mr. Castéra who, in the final iteration, is positioned prominently at right, in three-quarter view.

Denis employs a high-keyed palette reminiscent of one of his most famous directives: “Don’t lose sight of the essential objectives of painting, which are expression, emotion, delectation; to understand the means, to paint decoratively, to exalt form and color.” While a tableau of domestic tranquility, the artist's deliberate choices vis-à- vis composition contribute to the overall narrative, positioning the family members in a manner that reflects their relationships and interactions. Left of center, Mrs. Castéra cradles the couple's youngest child, while their other four are presented frontally or in profile. Hélène, the Castéras' eldest daughter, holds a musical score, a nod to her father's livelihood. Elsewhere within the wooded landscape, horses graze and one of the family's two dogs sits at attention.

Denis, a pivotal figure in the late-19th century Nabis movement, was a music aficionado and, naturally, music figured prominently into his œuvre. (Over the course of his career, he produced over 200 paintings and drawings on the theme.) Both of his wives were accomplished musicians–his first wife, Marthe, was a pianist, while his second, Elisabeth, was a singer. In 1912, Denis was commissioned to design the decorative scheme for the cupola of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris–a program that paid homage to the history of the musical arts. Among the figures celebrated in Denis's design was his dear friend, René de Castéra.