# Maurice Denis artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/maurice-denis/
Profile generated: 2026-05-03T07:12:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1870-11-25
- Death date: 1943-11-13
- Nationality: French
- Movements: Les Nabis, Symbolism, Neo-classicism

## About Maurice Denis

Maurice Denis (1870–1943) was a French painter, decorative artist, writer, and theorist whose ideas shaped the course of modern art. Born in Granville, Normandy, Denis emerged as a leading voice of Les Nabis, the avant-garde group active in late-nineteenth-century Paris that drew on Symbolist philosophy and flat, expressive color. His famous dictum that a painting is fundamentally a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order anticipated the formal concerns of Cubism, Fauvism, and abstraction. Beyond painting, Denis was a prolific muralist, lithographer, illustrator, and designer of stained glass and tapestries. After World War I he co-founded the Ateliers d'Art Sacré, devoting much of his later career to the revival of Christian sacred art through church decoration. His theoretical writings, especially his collected essays "Théories" (1913), remained influential throughout the twentieth century. With 836 lots recorded at auction, Denis is a well-represented figure in the international art market.

## Common works and media

Denis worked across a broad range of media. Oil paintings on canvas include allegorical scenes, female figures, landscapes, and religious subjects. He produced large-scale decorative murals and fresco cycles for private interiors and churches. Print collectors encounter his lithographs, often issued as book illustrations or portfolio plates, as well as pastels, watercolors, and drawings. Later in his career he designed stained-glass windows and tapestry cartoons for ecclesiastical commissions. Common subjects include mythological narratives, Madonna-and-child compositions, domestic interiors, and stylized pastoral scenes.

## Market and appraisal context

Maurice Denis maintains an active and well-documented auction market spanning nearly three decades (1998–2026), with 596 total lots recorded and 368 carrying realized prices. The price distribution is wide: from €10 for reproductive lithographs to €2,629,000 for top-tier Nabis-period oil paintings, reflecting the breadth of media Denis worked in. The median stands at €10,000, with the interquartile range between €1,300 and €28,000. Year-over-year volume is stable (47 lots in the trailing 12 months vs. 46 in the prior period), indicating consistent collector demand and healthy liquidity. Denis is represented at the highest echelon of the auction market—Christie's and Sotheby's appear frequently among his top houses—alongside strong European specialist firms including Artcurial, Bonhams, Tajan, Koller Auctions, Millon & Associés, Ader, and Piasa. Recent 2026 results at Christie's range from €7,620 for a work on paper (Femme en blanc sur le chemin jaune) to €152,400 for the oil Portrait de Marthe et Maurice, while a pastel Portrait de Marthe lisant realized £33,020 at Christie's London. OXIO sold a Denis oil for €35,000 in March 2026, and Koller Auctions achieved CHF 28,000 in November 2025. At the lower end, lithographs and studies routinely trade between €10 and €200, confirming a steep value gradient between unique works and editioned prints.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Maurice Denis maintains an active and well-documented auction market spanning nearly three decades (1998–2026), with 596 total lots recorded and 368 carrying realized prices. The price distribution is wide: from €10 for reproductive lithographs to €2,629,000 for top-tier Nabis-period oil paintings, reflecting the breadth of media Denis worked in. The median stands at €10,000, with the interquartile range between €1,300 and €28,000. Year-over-year volume is stable (47 lots in the trailing 12 months vs. 46 in the prior period), indicating consistent collector demand and healthy liquidity. Denis is represented at the highest echelon of the auction market—Christie's and Sotheby's appear frequently among his top houses—alongside strong European specialist firms including Artcurial, Bonhams, Tajan, Koller Auctions, Millon & Associés, Ader, and Piasa. Recent 2026 results at Christie's range from €7,620 for a work on paper (Femme en blanc sur le chemin jaune) to €152,400 for the oil Portrait de Marthe et Maurice, while a pastel Portrait de Marthe lisant realized £33,020 at Christie's London. OXIO sold a Denis oil for €35,000 in March 2026, and Koller Auctions achieved CHF 28,000 in November 2025. At the lower end, lithographs and studies routinely trade between €10 and €200, confirming a steep value gradient between unique works and editioned prints.

### Appraisal notes

An Appraisily appraisal for a Maurice Denis work would use these 596 auction records as comparable-sale evidence, filtered by medium, period, size, and subject to identify the most relevant benchmarks. The appraiser would combine this data with examination of the work's photographs, measured dimensions, confirmed medium (oil, pastel, gouache, lithograph, etc.), signature or monogram details, condition report, and any documented provenance or exhibition history. For prints, edition size, plate mark dimensions, and paper type would be assessed. The wide price dispersion in Denis's record (€10–€2,629,000) makes precise matching to medium and period critical—comparing a lithograph to an oil painting auction result would produce a misleading estimate. The appraiser would also note whether the work appears in the Denis catalogue raisonné, as documented entries carry a measurable market premium. Final fair-market value conclusions would be anchored to the interquartile range of the most comparable recent sales, adjusted for condition, provenance quality, and current market sentiment.

### Valuation factors

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### Collector notes

- Denis's auction market is liquid: with 47 lots sold in the past 12 months, buyers and sellers can expect reasonable turnover across price tiers.
- The steep price curve (€10 to €2.6 million) means two Denis works can differ in value by five orders of magnitude. Always confirm whether a lot is a unique work, an original print, or a reproductive lithograph before comparing to auction results.
- Christie's and Sotheby's dominate the high end. For works estimated above €20,000, consignment to a major Impressionist and Modern sale in Paris or London will likely maximize exposure.
- French regional houses (Artcurial, Tajan, Piasa, Millon, Ader) regularly offer Denis at mid-range estimates (€1,000–€35,000) and can be good sources for collectors entering the market.
- Lithographs and book illustrations under €200 are widely available and offer affordable entry points, but carry minimal investment upside compared to unique works.
- The stable year-over-year volume (47 vs. 46 lots) suggests the market is neither overheating nor contracting—favorable conditions for considered buying or selling.
- Provenance from Galerie Druet, Ambroise Vollard, or Denis's estate adds measurable premium. Collectors should retain and document any gallery labels, invoices, or exhibition history.

### Market caveats

- Denis produced a large volume of decorative commissions, prints, and illustrations; not all carry the same market weight as his Nabis-period easel paintings.
- Print editions and reproductive lithographs circulate widely and must be distinguished from unique works when using auction comparables.
- Later religious and decorative commissions tend to be less commercially desirable than early Symbolist work, though institutional interest can sustain niche demand.
- The €2,629,000 maximum reflects a single outlier; the vast majority of Denis lots trade well below €100,000. Appraisals should weight the median and interquartile range more heavily than the ceiling.
- Recent lot titles in the source pack often lack medium, dimensions, and full description, making direct comparability limited without further catalog research.
- Prices in the record span EUR, GBP, CHF, and USD. Currency conversion is required for cross-comparison and was not applied in the raw data.
- Some recent lots (OXIO, Hampel) lack images in the source pack, which limits visual verification of attribution.

### Market evidence sources

- Appraisily auction record index: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/maurice-denis/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- Invaluable / Christie's: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-maurice-denis-1870-1943-portrait-de-marthe-et-maurice-324-c-0fea014bec
- Invaluable / Christie's: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-maurice-denis-1870-1943-portrait-de-marthe-lisant-pastel-on-paper-laid-501-c-35ac6bfa57
- Invaluable / Christie's: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-maurice-denis-1870-1943-femme-en-blanc-sur-le-chemin-jaune-376-c-65c5cabd36
- Invaluable / OXIO: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-maurice-denis-1870-1943-39-c-295899caee
- Invaluable / Koller Auctions: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-maurice-denis-3215-c-5341f46b89
- Invaluable / Hampel Fine Art Auctions: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-maurice-denis-1870-granville-1943-paris-493-c-64e43a28f5
- Invaluable / Grant Zahajko Auctions: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-maurice-denis-lithograph-maternite-au-cypress-18-c-986483988c
- Invaluable / Caza Sikes: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-maurice-denis-lithograph-on-paper-241-c-e79a2cd446

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine verified artist identity research from museum records, library authority files, and scholarly sources with auction-house catalog data, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lot records when available. Maurice Denis's identity profile is grounded in records from the Library of Congress, VIAF, RKD, and the Museum of Modern Art, and is cross-referenced with Wikidata. Market observations draw on patterns visible in public auction records and should not be treated as formal appraisals.

## Sources

- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n82110229
- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/21955
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/1492
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/71426722/
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q440369
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Denis
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500032673