# Homage to Cézanne [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [DENIS, Maurice]() - Date: 1851-1900 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 182 x 244 cm ## Commentary This painting rings out like a manifesto. Maurice Denis has assembled a group of friends, artists and critics, in the shop of the art dealer, Ambroise Vollard, to celebrate Paul Cézanne, who is represented by the still-life on the easel. This painting, Fruit Bowl, Glass and Apples had belonged to Paul Gauguin, who is also evoked among the tutelary examples to whom Denis is paying homage. Effectively, a painting by Gauguin and another by Renoir can be made out in the background. Odilon Redon is also given pride of place: he is shown in the foreground on the far left and most of the figures are looking at him. He is listening to Paul Sérusier who is standing in front of him. From left to right, we can recognise Edouard Vuillard, the critic André Mellerio in a top hat, Vollard behind the easel, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Pierre Bonnard smoking a pipe, and lastly Marthe Denis, the painter's young wife. Part of the Nabi generation is gathered here in a composition which follows on from the homage paid by Fantin-Latour in several paintings, especially <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/f/fantin/group2.html'\)" href="/html/f/fantin/group2.html">A Studio at Les Batignolles</a> in the Musée d'Orsay. When Maurice Denis exhibited his work in Paris and Brussels in 1901, reactions were sometimes hostile. In his diary, the artist referred to it as "that painting, which still makes the public laugh". His friend, the writer André Gide, immediately offered to buy it. He did not part with it until 1928 when he gave it to the Musée du Luxembourg. ## Related artworks - [Cupola decoration in the Théatre des Champs Élysées \(model\)]() - [Cupola decoration in the Théatre des Champs Élysées \(model\)]() - [Cycle of The Legend of St Hubert]() - [Interior view]() - [Interior view]() - [Nude with Bouquet of Violets]() - [Portrait of Yvonne Lerolle in three views]() - [Presentation in the Temple in Florence - Evening at Fiesole]() - [Presentation in the Temple in Florence - Morning at Fiesole]() - [Presentation in the Temple in Florence - The Presentation]() - [Room with the Cycle of The Legend of St Hubert]() - [Saint George and the Dragon]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()