Cleveland Museum of Art
The Orange Christ
Maurice Denis
- Date
- 1889
- Medium
- oil on board
- Culture
- France
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
A devout Catholic, Maurice Denis sought to create what he described as “imperishable icons.” In this small painting, he used flat planes of intense colors to conjure emotion in the viewer. Here, a somber group of women, depicted as amorphous black forms, gather around an orange figure of Christ on the cross. The sky is a reddish-purple streaked with green clouds. Pink angels flank the crucified Christ whose head is haloed in brilliant yellow. In this painting, the daring young artist combined religious fervor with unprecedented visual experimentation. As reflected in the two-dimensionality and color blocking in this painting, Denis believed a painting was "a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order."
The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Cleveland Museum of Art and other institutions.
Christ on the Cross
Getty Museum
Christ on the Cross with the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Saint John
Getty Museum
Christ on the Cross with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist, and Saint Catherine of Siena in Adoration
Getty Museum
The Crucifixion
Getty Museum
The Crucifixion
Getty Museum
Head of Christ
Getty Museum
The Agony in the Garden
Getty Museum
Christ and the Adulteress
Getty Museum
Madonna and Child with Angels Bearing Symbols of the Passion
Getty Museum
Christ Crowned with Thorns
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Christ in Limbo
Getty Museum
Christ on the Cross with Mary Magdalene
Art Institute of Chicago