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In the “Muses,” Maurice Denis puts into practice his formal ideas on painting, while applying them to a subject which is Symbolist in inspiration. The theorist of the Nabi group is here pursuing his experiments in decorative painting, preoccupied by the stylization of figures and motives.

Outlined forms, women with very pale faces, a combination of straight vertical lines and harmonious curves create a strange, unreal setting, belonging both to the 19th century and a distant mythological age.

It is also a hymn to his beloved Marthe, who is present in the face of each of the Muses.

“How can we tear ourselves away from the tender confidences of the painter-poet? How can we make a quick escape from these exquisite images of calm, meditation and pity: in the ageless grove the Muses are assembled.”
Roger Marx, on the exhibition at the 1893 Salon des Indépendants.