# The Orange Christ

- By: Maurice Denis (French, 1870–1943)
- Date: 1889
- Medium: oil on board
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Unframed: 23.8 x 18.9 cm (9 3/8 x 7 7/16 in.)
- Culture: France
- Credit line: Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/2020.107)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2020.107/2020.107_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

A devout Catholic, Maurice Denis sought to create what he described as “imperishable icons.” In this small painting, he used flat planes of intense colors to conjure emotion in the viewer. Here, a somber group of women, depicted as amorphous black forms, gather around an orange figure of Christ on the cross. The sky is a reddish-purple streaked with green clouds. Pink angels flank the crucified Christ whose head is haloed in brilliant yellow. In this painting, the daring young artist combined religious fervor with unprecedented visual experimentation.