Description
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.
Provenance
Edouard Vuillard [1868-1940] Paris, France, gifted from the artist in 1891 (1891–1940); Private Collection, Paris, France (by 1970); (Galerie Hopkins-Custot, Paris, France) (after 1984); Private Collection, France (by 1992); Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of
Art (2020); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (2020–)
Accession Number
2020.108
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
Unframed: 55.9 x 46.4 cm (22 x 18 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting Canvas French Color: Green
Background & Context
Background Story
Maurice Denis (1870-1943) was a French painter and theorist who became the leading voice of the Nabi movement, the group of young painters who emerged from the Académie Julian in the early 1890s with a commitment to treating painting as a flat surface covered with colors rather than an illusion of depth. Procession or Pardon at Perros-Guirec from 1891 is one of Denis's earliest Nabi paintings, depicting a Breton religious procession (a 'pardon') in the seaside town of Perros-Guirec. The 1891 date places this at the very beginning of the Nabi movement, when Denis was just 21 and was formulating the theoretical principles that would define the group.
Cultural Impact
The Pardon at Perros-Guirec is one of the foundational works of the Nabi movement because it demonstrates Denis's theoretical principle that a painting is essentially a flat surface covered with colors arranged in a certain order. The Breton procession is rendered in the flat, decorative style that defines Nabi painting: the figures are simplified, the perspective is flattened, and the colors are organized in decorative patterns rather than used to create the illusion of depth.
Why It Matters
Procession or Pardon at Perros-Guirec is Nabi painting at its most theoretical: a Breton religious procession rendered as a flat surface covered with colors arranged in decorative patterns rather than an illusion of depth. The 1891 date makes this a foundational work of the Nabi movement—Denis's theory in practice before his famous manifesto.
