# Drying the Linen, or Moonrise at the Priory

- By: Maurice Denis (French, 1870–1943)
- Date: 1894
- Medium: oil on canvas glued to cardboard
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Unframed: 34.9 x 31.4 x 0.6 cm (13 3/4 x 12 3/8 x 1/4 in.)
- Culture: France, 19th century
- Credit line: Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/2020.109)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2020.109/2020.109_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

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.