Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009234About the Artwork
This painting depicts the enclosed backyard garden of a former priory—a religious building where monks and nuns live under the leadership of a prior—that Maurice Denis purchased in 1914. He transformed the building into a home for his large family and lived there for the last 30 years of his life. A woman dressed in black hangs linens to dry, so that—according to custom—they will be bleached by moonlight. The full moon casts a golden glow over the entire nighttime scene.
Inscriptions
Signed and dated lower left: MAVD 94, Signed lower right: MAVD
Provenance
1941–at least 1945: Pierre Guéguen [1889-1965] Paris, France, by gift from the artist after 1945–1987: Claude R. Cueto, Paris, France 1987: Claude R. Cueto, December 22, 1987, sold to the Sam Josefowitz Family 1987–2010: The Sam Josefowitz Family, New York, NY, April 2010, sold to Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley 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
Exhibition history
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).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Maurice Denis (French, 1870–1943)
- Date
- 1894
- Medium
- oil on canvas glued to cardboard
- Dimensions
- Unframed: 34.9 x 31.4 x 0.6 cm (13 3/4 x 12 3/8 x 1/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift
- Accession no.
- 2020.109
More by Maurice Denis in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009234
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