By the start of the twentieth century, the former Nabi artist Maurice Denis (1870–1943) was firmly in the avant garde, his paintings evolving away from his earlier Nabi style, and making series of prints. He had started serious print-making around 1890, and had made woodblocks for music by Debussy. His prints became even more important in the early twentieth century, when he illustrated writings by an eclectic range of authors including Dante, Verlaine and Saint Francis of Assisi.

Maurice Denis (1870–1943), Boat to Saint Breton, or Portrait of Albert Clouard as a Saint (1903-06), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Musée des beaux-arts de Morlaix, Morlaix, France. Wikimedia Commons.

Many of Denis’ themes remained religious, such as his Boat to Saint Breton, or Portrait of Albert Clouard as a Saint painted between 1903-06. This may refer to a legend of the life of the first Breton saint, canonised in…