Cleveland Museum of Art

Drying the Linen, or Moonrise at the Priory

Maurice Denis

Date

1894

Medium

oil on canvas glued to cardboard

Culture

France, 19th century

Department

Modern European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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. 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.

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