become a Christian painter, that I celebrate all the miracles of Christianity, I feel that is what is needed." In 1887 he discovered a new source of inspiration, the works of Puvis de Chavannes.

Denis was accepted as a student at one of the most prestigious Paris schools, the Lycée Condorcet, where he excelled at philosophy.  However, he decided to leave the school at the end of 1887 and in 1888 enrolled in Académie Julian to prepare for the entrance examination to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. There he studied with the painter and theorist Jules Joseph Lefebvre. He passed the entrance examination for the Beaux-Arts in July 1888, and passed another examination in November to receive his baccalaureate in philosophy.

Les Nabis

At the Académie Julian, his fellow"The Priory" and Between 1915 and 1928, with the aid of the architect Auguste Perret, he decorated the building, particularly the unfinished chapel, which he filled with his own designs of frescos, stained glass, statues and furniture. In 1916 declared his intention to aim for the "supreme goal of painting, which is the large-scale decorative mural." he completed twenty murals between 1916 and his death in 1943.

Besides the Priory, his other major works of this period include the decoration of the Church of Notre-Dame du Raincy, an innovative  reinforced concrete art deco church in the Paris suburbs designed by Auguste Perret, which was completed in 1924. The church was designed in the spirit of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, to give the stained glass the maximum effect. The windows