Maquette pour un portrait de Denis

Maquette pour un portrait de Denis from 1930 at the Musée d'Art Moderne is one of a series of sketch-portraits Vuillard made of his surviving Nabi colleagues in his final years — Maurice Denis, Aristide Maillol, Pierre Bonnard, and Ker-Xavier Roussel all appear in this group of preparatory studies. The word "maquette" signals that this was not a finished commissioned portrait but a working study, giving it a freshness and immediacy different from Vuillard's more formal portrait works. The four Nabi portrait maquettes held by the Musée d'Art Moderne constitute a collective testimony to the movement's aging surviving members.

As a maquette, this work shows Vuillard's unguarded working process — color notes taken rapidly, composition tested without the polish of a finished painting. The handling is looser and more exploratory than his finished portraits, with visible adjustments and the directness of first observation rather than considered revision.