Procession or Pardon at Perros-Guirec (1891): Art, History and Details

Procession or Pardon at Perros-Guirec (1891) 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:

One of the leading artists of a group called the Nabis ("Prophets"), Denis rejected naturalism and materialism out of desire to return spirituality to art. His imaginative compositions emphasize flat, decorative shapes and abstract colors. This painting depicts an annual procession in a small village in Brittany held on the feast day of Saint-Jacques. Young women dressed in white lead the procession; they are followed by married women wearing black and carrying a religious icon.

Object facts

• Title: Procession or Pardon at Perros-Guirec
• Date: 1891
• Creator attribution: Maurice Denis (French, 1870–1943)
• Culture: France
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Unframed: 55.9 x 46.4 cm (22 x 18 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 2020.108

A detail from the museum

A pardon is a ceremony that occurs on the feast of the patron saint of a church often followed by a procession.

Collection credit

Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lefevre Galleries, London. Vuillard Et Son Kodak. [Exposition] March 5-26. [London]: Lefevre Gallery, 1964.
• Musée de l'Orangerie, Maurice Denis, and Anne Distel. Maurice Denis. Orangerie des Tuileries, 3 juin-31 août 1970. Paris, France: Ministère d'État, Affaires culturelles, 1970.
• Maurice Denis. Gemälde, Handzeichnungen, Druckgraphik. Meisterwerke des Nachimpressionismus aus der Sammlung Maurice Denis. (Ausstellung,) Kunsthaus Zürich, 29. Jan-12. März 1972. (Katalog.). Zürich, 1972.

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.