id: 92844 accession number: 2020.110 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2020.110 updated: 2023-08-23 17:56:04.510000 Blessing of a Yacht on the Belon River, 1899. Maurice Denis (French, 1870–1943). Oil on canvas; unframed: 75 x 80 cm (29 1/2 x 31 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.110 title: Blessing of a Yacht on the Belon River title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1899 creation date earliest: 1899 creation date latest: 1899 current location: 223 20th Century Avant-Garde creditline: Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift copyright: --- culture: France technique: oil on canvas department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Maurice Denis (French, 1870–1943) - artist --- measurements: Unframed: 75 x 80 cm (29 1/2 x 31 1/2 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: signed lower right: MAVD translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection opening date: 2022-09-11T04:00:00 Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Galerie Bernheim, Paris France (April 1900). * La Libre Esthetique, Brussels, Belgium (1903). * Union Centrale des Arts decoratifs. Pavillon Marsan, Paris, France (1924). * Retrospective Maurice Denis. Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom (January-February, 1966). * Pont-Aven: Gauguin und sein Kreis in der Bretagne. Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland (March-April 1966). * Maurice Denis. Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, France (June 3-August 31, 1970). * Maurice Denis. Kunsthalle, Bremen, Germany (October 17-December 5, 1971); Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland (January 29-March 12, 1972); Stantens Museum fur Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark (April 8-May 7, 1972). * Post-Impressionism: Crosscurrents in European Painting. Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom (November 1979-March 1980); National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (May-September 1980). * Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven. Museum Würth, Künzelsau, Germany (March 2-June 1,1997). * Kenavo Monsieur Gauguin - Centenaire de la mort de Gauguin. Musèe de Pont-Aven, Pont-Aven, France (June 28-September 29, 2003). --- PROVENANCE Collection of the Artist date: 1899-1903 footnotes: citations: (La Livre Esthetique, Brussels, Belgium, acquired by Thomas Braun directly from the artist) date: 1903 footnotes: *
According to the bill of sale in the curatorial file, Thomas Braun purchased this painting from Maurice Denis at La Libre Esthetique, an artistic society in Brussels.
citations: Thomas Braun [1876-1961] Brussels, Belgium, consigned to Galerie Andrew Maurice date: 1903–1962 footnotes: citations: (Galerie Andrew Maurice, Paris, France, May 14, 1962, sold to the family of Samuel Josefowicz) date: 1962 footnotes: *
Buyer information is according to a handwritten annotation on the bill of sale.
citations: Family of Samuel Josefowicz, sold to Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley date: 1962–2015 footnotes: citations: Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 2015–2020 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2020– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Denis was an extremely prolific artist who experimented with other art forms. His decorative murals can be viewed in many French churches as well as on the ceiling of the Champs Élysées Theatre in Paris. digital description: Maurice Denis was a member of the Nabis, a small circle of artists formed in Paris in 1888 and associated with the Symbolist movement. Taking their name from the Hebrew and Arabic terms for “prophet,” the Nabis abandoned the Impressionist goal of depicting the fleeting effects of nature, and instead sought to convey a deeper level of meaning through harmonious arrangements of decorative line and color. Denis’s painting depicts a crowd of figures standing on a riverbank, their forms simplified and rendered with pure colors, as they watch the blessing of a yacht on the Belon River near Pont-Aven in Brittany. The subject reflects the artist’s fascination with the humble, spiritual life of this rural community, culturally disparate from the tumultuous strife of modern urban life. wall description: Blessing of a Yacht on the Belon River reflects Maurice Denis’s fascination with the humble, spiritual life of a rural community near Pont-Aven, a small town in Brittany on France’s Atlantic coast. The landscape and figures, many dressed in black robes and blue bonnets, are rendered with intense colors and radically simplified, flattened forms in accordance with Nabi principles of pictorial construction. The Nabis, a circle of artists formed in Paris in 1888, valued harmonious arrangements of decorative color and design over strict adherence to naturalistic appearances. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Œuvres de Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Ibels, Aristide Maillol, Hermann Paul, Ranson, Roussel, Serusier, Vallotton, Vuillard: catalogue. Paris: MM. Bernheim Jeune et fils, 1900. page number: Mentioned: Denis no. 6 url: Exposition Maurice Denis 1888-1924 [Parijs, 1924]. Paris: Union centrale des Arts décoratifs, 1924. page number: Mentioned: P. 8, no. 112 url: Pont-Aven: Gauguin und sein Kreis in der Bretagne. Zürich: Kunsthaus Zürich, 1966. page number: Mentioned: P. 172, no. 168 url: Distel, Anne. Maurice Denis. Orangerie des Tuileries, 3 juin-31 août 1970. Paris, France: Ministère d'État, Affaires culturelles, 1970. page number: Mentioned: P. 39, no. 70 url: Maurice Denis. Gemälde, Handzeichnungen, Druckgraphik. Meisterwerke des Nachimpressionismus aus der Sammlung Maurice Denis. (Ausstellung,) Kunsthaus Zürich, 29. Jan-12. März 1972. (Katalog.). 1972. page number: Mentioned: P. 42, no. 48 url: House, John, and Mary Anne Stevens. Post-Impressionism: Cross-Currents in European Painting. London, United Kingdom : Royal Academy of Arts, 1979. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 67, no. 70 url: National Gallery of Art (US.). Post-Impressionism: Cross-Currents in European and American Painting, 1880-1906. Washington DC: National Gallery of Art, 1980. page number: Reproduced: P. 129; Mentioned: P. 128, no. 163 url: Pickvance, Ronald. Gauguin and the Pont-Aven School. [Sydney, Australia]: [Art Gallery of New South Wales], 1994. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 112-113, no. 68 url: Pickvance, Ronald, and Richard R. Brettell. Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven. London: Apollo, 1994. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 96, no. 68 url: Pickvance, Ronald. Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven. Sigmaringen, Germany: Thorbecke, 1997. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 180-181, no. 68 url: Kerlo, Léo, René Le Bihan, and Jacqueline Duroc. [Peintres des côtes de Bretagne]. Douarnenez, France: Chasse-marée/Armen, 1998. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 154-155 url: Kenavo Monsieur Gauguin: Musée de Pont-Aven, 28 juin-29 septembre 2003. Pont-Aven, France: Musée de Pont-Aven, 2003. page number: Mentioned and reproduced:. p. 64-65, no. 16 url: Kerlo, Léo, and Jacqueline Duroc. Peintres des côtes de Bretagne. 4, 4. Douardenez: Chasse-marée, 2006. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 154-155 url: Delouche, Denise. Maurice Denis et la Bretagne. Quimper: Palantines, 2009. page number: Mentioned: P. 58-59; Reproduced: P.146, no. PA-41 url: “A Historic Gift. Longtime CMA supporters Joseph and Nancy Keithley give 114 works, the largest gift in more than 60 years.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 60, no. 3 (Summer 2020): Cover, 6-9. page number: Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 7. url: --- IMAGES