Cleveland Museum of Art

Procession or Pardon at Perros-Guirec

Maurice Denis

Date

1891

Medium

oil on canvas

Culture

France

Department

Modern European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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

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