{
"data": {
"id": 84662,
"accession_number": "2020.107",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Orange Christ, 1889. Maurice Denis (French, 1870\u20131943). Oil on board; unframed: 23.8 x 18.9 cm (9 3/8 x 7 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift, 2020.107",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The Orange Christ",
"creation_date": "1889",
"creation_date_earliest": 1889,
"creation_date_latest": 1889,
"artists_tags": [
"male",
"Nabis"
],
"culture": [
"France"
],
"technique": "oil on board",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Modern European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Unframed: 23.8 x 18.9 cm (9 3/8 x 7 7/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 0.287,
"height_inch": 11,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.3125,
"width": 0.335,
"width_inch": 13,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.1875,
"depth": 0.054,
"depth_inch": 2,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.125
},
"unframed": {
"height": 0.238,
"height_inch": 9,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"width": 0.189,
"width_inch": 7,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.4375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "vertical studio monogram, lower left",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 396695,
"title": "Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection",
"description": "Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).",
"opening_date": "2022-09-11T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Maurice Denis. Galerie Beaux-Arts, Paris, France (1963).",
"opening_date": "1963-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Maurice Denis. Mus\u00e9e Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi, France (June 28-September 29, 1963).",
"opening_date": "1963-06-28T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Maurice Denis. Wildenstein Gallery, London, United Kingdom (1964).",
"opening_date": "1964-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Maurice Denis et les Nabis. Mus\u00e9e des beaux-arts, Angers, France (June 1-August 31, 1967).",
"opening_date": "1967-06-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Maurice Denis. Orangerie des Tuilleries, Paris, France (June 1-August 31, 1970).",
"opening_date": "1970-06-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Maurice Denis. Salles d'Exposition du Grenier \u00e0 Sel, Honfleur, France (July - Aug. 1975).",
"opening_date": "1975-07-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Vincent van Gogh and the Birth of Cloisonism. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario (January 24 - March 22, 1981); Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (April 9 - 14 June 1981).",
"opening_date": "1981-01-24T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Maurice Denis - 100 ans apres a Alencon. Mus\u00e9e des Beaux-Arts de la Dentelle d'Alencon, Alencon, France (July 6-September 29, 1985).",
"opening_date": "1985-07-06T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Le chemin de Gauguin : genese et rayonnement. Mus\u00e9e du Prieure, Yvelines, France (October 7, 1985- March 2, 1986).",
"opening_date": "1985-10-07T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA organizer) (November 23, 1986-March 8, 1987); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL (April 17-July 19, 1987); Haags Gemeentemuseum, (September 1-November 22, 1987).",
"opening_date": "1987-04-17T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Maurice Denis, 1870-1943. Muse\u0301e des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, France (September 29-December 18, 1994); Wallraf-Richarts Museum, Cologne, Germany (January 22-April 2,1995); Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom (April 21-June 18, 1995); Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (July 7-September 17, 1995).",
"opening_date": "1994-09-29T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Gauguin\u2019s Vision. Royal Scottish Academy Building, Edinburgh, Scotland (July 6- October 2, 2005).",
"opening_date": "2005-07-06T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "The artist's studio",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "By descent to the artist\u2019s son, Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Denis [1915\u20132004], Alen\u00e7on, France",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"[1] According to Anne Distel, Maurice Denis (Paris: Ministe\u0300re d'E\u0301tat, Affaires culturelles, 1970), cat. no. 7, the painting was in the collection of J.F. Denis, Alen\u00e7on.
"
],
"date": null,
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "(Galerie Hopkins Custot, Paris, France, March 21, 2007, sold to Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"[2] According to Belinda Thomson, Frances Fowle, and Lesley Stevenson, Gauguin\u2019s Vision (Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 2005), p. 83, fig. 102, ill.
"
],
"date": "by 2005\u20132007",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "2007\u20132020",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "2020\u2013",
"sortorder": 5
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "As reflected in the two-dimensionality and color blocking in this painting, Denis believed a painting was \"a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order.\"",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "A devout Catholic, Maurice Denis sought to create what he described as \u201cimperishable icons.\u201d In this small painting, he used flat planes of intense colors to conjure emotion in the viewer. Here, a somber group of women, depicted as amorphous black forms, gather around an orange figure of Christ on the cross. The sky is a reddish-purple streaked with green clouds. Pink angels flank the crucified Christ whose head is haloed in brilliant yellow. In this painting, the daring young artist combined religious fervor with unprecedented visual experimentation.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q87480871"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-2020.107-the-orange-christ"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Muse\u0301e Toulouse-Lautrec. Exposition Maurice Denis; peintures, aquarelles, dessins, lithographies, du 28 juin au 29 septembre 1963, Muse\u0301e Toulouse-Lautrec. Albi.1963.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: P. 21, cat. no. 5",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Angers. Maurice Denis & les Nabis: exposition Muse\u0301e des Beaux-Arts d'Angers, du 1er juin au 31 aou\u0302t 1967. Angers, France: Le Muse\u0301e, 1967.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: no. 2",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Distel, Anne. Maurice Denis. Orangerie des Tuileries, 3 juin-31 aou\u0302t 1970. Paris, France: Ministe\u0300re d'E\u0301tat, Affaires culturelles, 1970.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: no. 7",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Maurice Denis, 1870-1943. Honfleur, France: Societe des artistes Honfleurais, 1975.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: no. 3",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Welsh-Ovcharov, Bogomila, and Vincent van Gogh. Vincent Van Gogh and the Birth of Cloisonism. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1981.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 380, no. 143",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Welsh-Ovcharov, Bogomila. Vincent Van Gogh and the Birth of Cloisonism. Toronto, Ontario: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1981.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 380, no. 143",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Janin-Juvigny, Sophie, Franc\u0327oise Ramassamy, and Guy Taburet. 100 ans apre\u0300s a\u0300 Alenc\u0327on: 6 juillet-29 septembre 1985, Muse\u0301e des beaux-arts et de la dentelle. Alenc\u0327on, France: Le Muse\u0301e, 1985.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 25, no. 19",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Le chemin de Gauguin: gene\u0300se et rayonnement. Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France: Muse\u0301e de\u0301partemental du Prieure\u0301, 1985.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 94",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Tuchman, Maurice, Judi Freeman, and Carel Blotkamp. The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985. New York: Abbeville Press, 1986.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 353-354",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Muse\u0301e des Beaux Arts, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Walker Art Gallery, and Van Gogh Museum. Maurice Denis: 1870-1943. Paris, France: Re\u0301union des Muse\u0301es Nationaux, 1994.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 139, no. 19",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Thomson, Belinda, Frances Fowle, and Lesley Stevenson. Gauguin's Vision. Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 2005.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 83, fig. 102",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Stahl, Fabienne. \"Maurice Denis.\" In The Keithley Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, edited by Heather Lemonedes Brown, 68-73. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 68-73; Mentioned: p. 261-263",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2020.107",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2020.107/2020.107_web.jpg",
"width": "726",
"height": "900",
"filesize": "373699",
"filename": "2020.107_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2020.107/2020.107_print.jpg",
"width": "2741",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "3893285",
"filename": "2020.107_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2020.107/2020.107_full.tif",
"width": "4462",
"height": "5535",
"filesize": "74119012",
"filename": "2020.107_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 84662,
"creators": [
{
"id": 22965,
"description": "Maurice Denis (French, 1870\u20131943)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1870",
"death_year": "1943",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2020-03-02T00:00:00-05:00",
"sortable_date": 1889,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1889",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-06-11 12:17:39.333000"
}
}