The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of February 8, 2023

Drying the Linen, or Moonrise at the Priory

1894

Maurice Denis

(French, 1870–1943)

France, 19th century

Oil on canvas glued to cardboard

Unframed: 34.9 x 31.4 x 0.6 cm (13 3/4 x 12 3/8 x 1/4 in.)

Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.109

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Denis began creating religious art in 1894, the year this painting was completed. A priory, as described in the title, is a religious building where monks and nuns live under the leadership of a prior.

Description

This painting depicts the enclosed backyard gardens of a former priory in Saint-Germain-en-Laye that Maurice Denis purchased in 1914. He transformed it into a home for his large family and lived there for the last thirty years of his life. The woman in the lower left is hanging linens to dry, so that—according to custom—they will be whitened or bleached by moonlight. The moon casts an intense yellow light over the entire scene, making the buildings glow with mysterious color.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed and dated lower left: MAVD 94, Signed lower right: MAVD

Provenance
1941
Pierre Guéguen [1889-1965] Paris, France, by gift from the artist
Claude R. Cueto, Paris, France
1987
Claude R. Cueto, sold to the Sam Josefowitz Family, December 22, 1987
1987-2010
The Sam Josefowitz Family, New York, NY
2010-2020
Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
2020-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Maurice Denis, 1870-1943: Lyon, Musée Des Beaux-Arts, 29 September-18 December 1994 : Cologne, Wallraf-Richarts Museum, 22 January-2 April 1995 : Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, 21 April-18 June 1995 : Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, 7 July-17 September 1995. Ghent: Snoeck-Ducaju & Zoon, 1994. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 182, no.56
Heilbrun, Françoise, Saskia Ooms, and Nathalie Bondil. Maurice Denis. Paris: Musée d'Orsay, 2006. Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 125-126, no. 11
Sanchez, Pierre, and Dominique Lobstein. Les Expositions de la Galerie Le Barc de Boutteville (1891-1899) et du Salon des Cent (1894-1903): Répertoire des Artistes et de Leurs Oeuvres. 2012. Mentioned: P. 235, no. 37
Brown, Heather Lemonedes. “In the Garden.” In Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris, 1889-1900. Mary Weaver Chapin and Heather Lemonedes Brown, 194-217. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2021. Mentioned: P. 201; Reproduced: P. 214, no. 143
Exhibition history

9è exposition.Le Barc de Boutteville, Paris, France (1895).

La Libre Esthétique. Brussels,Belgium (1896).

Rétrospective Maurice Denis Union Centrale des Arts décoratifs 1888-1924. Pavillon de Marsan, Paris, France (1924).

Galerie Louis Carré, Paris, France (1941).

Maurice Denis. Musée d' Art Moderne, Paris, France (1945).

Maurice Denis. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, France (September 29-December 18, 1994); Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany (January 10-March 25, 1995); Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom (April 21-June 18, 1995); Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
(June 22-September 17, 1995).

Maurice Denis. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France (October 31, 2006-January 21, 2007); Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec (February 22-May 20, 2007).

Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris, 1889–1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (July 1-September 19, 2021); Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR (co-organizer) (October 23, 2021-January 23, 2022).

Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.109