Exhibition: Maurice Denis, collector — Bonnard, Gauguin, Sérusier...

The Maurice Denis Departmental Museum, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, presents the exhibition “Maurice Denis collector - Bonnard, Gauguin, Sérusier...” running from May 7, 2026 to January 31, 2027.

The exhibition route unveils, for the first time, the collection gathered by painter, decorator and theorist Maurice Denis, placing his own works in dialogue with those of his teachers, friends and students.

From Gauguin to Van Gogh, with Cézanne, Bonnard, Maillol, Ranson and Sérusier in between, the exhibition invites you to step into the intimate artistic world of an artist’s home, tied to the avant-gardes at the turn of the 20th century.

Painter and theorist, Maurice Denis was also a shrewd collector. From Paul Gauguin to Vincent van Gogh, including Paul Cézanne or Odilon Redon, he managed in his lifetime to assemble a collection of works by the era’s greatest artists, offering a distinctive reflection of the history of the avant-gardes at the turn of the 20th century. His Nabi circle naturally takes center stage, notably with Pierre Bonnard, Aristide Maillol, Paul-Élie Ranson, Paul Sérusier, Jan Verkade or Édouard Vuillard. 

With this exhibition, the Maurice Denis Departmental Museum invites visitors to dive back into the interiors imagined by the artist, where his own works spoke with those of his mentors, friends and students.

The works by artists such as Paul Sérusier sit alongside those of Aristide Maillol or Charles Laval, and are set within period furnishings. The display thus traces the distinctive artistic atmosphere Maurice Denis fostered.

With nearly 150 works, the exhibition offers a curated selection of paintings, sculptures and graphic works, enriched by never-before-seen archives. It benefits from the support of prestigious institutions including the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de Pont-Aven, the Beaux-Arts Museums of Orléans and Reims, and the Geneva Museum of Art and History.