Drying the Linen, or Moonrise at the Priory (1894): Art, History and Details

Drying the Linen, or Moonrise at the Priory (1894) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Maurice Denis (French, 1870–1943).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Drying the Linen, or Moonrise at the Priory
• Date: 1894
• Creator attribution: Maurice Denis (French, 1870–1943)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: 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.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 2020.109

A detail from the museum

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.

Collection credit

Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift

Further reading listed by the museum

• 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.
• Heilbrun, Françoise, Saskia Ooms, and Nathalie Bondil. Maurice Denis. Paris: Musée d'Orsay, 2006.
• 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.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.