Dans la Forêt 1898

Curator: Maurice Denis' "Dans la Forêt," painted in 1898, it’s an enchanting glimpse into an intimate moment in nature. Editor: It certainly exudes an ethereal quality, almost as if time stands still amidst the trees, like some sort of secret meeting of nymphs. The figures are obscured just enough, draped in fabrics of indeterminate shape. Curator: I am transported back to my childhood every time I see it; the summers of lounging on the forest floor with friends with sunlight trickling between leaves, trying to capture fireflies... There's a deliberate flatness, right? It emphasizes the surface of the painting itself. You see it's built from many small spots and blobs of color; impasto laid out quickly and simply with the palette knife. The means of production are readily legible. Editor: Precisely! Look how the paint application almost deconstructs form, and how the material processes form not only the overall style of the artwork, but also what this group of leisure is actually doing. And while on this topic of "material," consider how the artist may want you to focus less on their lived experiences of sitting around talking with one another, but instead more on how this intimate relationship between people and materials of everyday use can still bring pleasure through its own means! Curator: It reminds me a little of a stage set, the figures positioned almost theatrically amidst the upright trees. In some ways it doesn't feel like realism to me, as much as Denis capturing a collective sentiment of wistful dreams. It also looks like they didn't carry that blanket or quilt that they're seated on too far at all, otherwise, there is just no narrative on it for anyone looking through the artist's memory. Editor: But do you not see the very labor in the way of producing even simple leisure, which is represented in these simple quilts, costumes, bonnets? Those material objects have had their history extracted by means of production and distribution. That's something real worth pondering, yes? The materiality that these post-impressionist used shows just how deeply entrenched with both personal feeling but socio-economic process! Curator: That’s something I hadn't fully considered before...thank you for illuminating this. The piece definitely offers a meditative view into both human interactions and manufactured material and mass production, it captures both simplicity and complexity with its impressionistic texture and palette. Editor: Thank you too. Yes, perhaps "Dans la Forêt" challenges our perspectives beyond a purely subjective appreciation.