Musée départemental Maurice-Denis

The Musée départemental Maurice Denis, also known as MDMD or "The Priory" (Le Prieuré), is a museum devoted to Nabi and Symbolist art located in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the Parisian region of Île-de-France. Established in 1976 and opened to the public in 1980, it occupies the former home and studio of Maurice Denis, the French Symbolist painter and theorist who was a central figure in the Nabi movement alongside artists such as Paul Sérusier, Pierre Bonnard, and Édouard Vuillard. The museum matters not only as a repository of Denis's work but as a rare intact artists' house that preserves the domestic, religious, and creative environment he shaped between 1910 and 1943.

The museum's origins lie in the donation of the property and a substantial family collection of Maurice Denis's works by the Denis family. The Conseil général of the Yvelines, the department in which Saint-Germain-en-Laye sits, created the museum in 1976. The building itself had served as a medical and pedagogical institute for children with neurological and psychological difficulties from 1943 until 1973. After acquiring the Priory, the departmental council transformed it into a public museum, which opened four years later in 1980. The complex was inscribed on the register of monuments historiques in February 1976, shortly before the museum's creation. After a closure for renovation works beginning in 2018, the museum reopened on 18 September 2021 during the European Heritage Days. In 2024, the Musée d'Orsay established a partnership with the museum, providing scientific support and assistance with national and international loans.

The collection centres on Maurice Denis and extends to his Nabi and Symbolist contemporaries, offering a focused yet representative survey of the movement. It includes paintings, stained glass, and decorative works that reflect the Symbolist ambition to unify art and life. The holdings encompass not only Denis's own output, spanning his early theoretical paintings to his late religious commissions, but also works by the broader circle of artists associated with the Nabis and their allies. The museum's particular strength lies in its integration of fine art with the architectural and decorative environment Denis designed, including the chapel furnishings and stained glass he created in collaboration with Marcel Poncet.

Among the works by Maurice Denis in the collection are Mystère catholique (1889), Portrait de l'artiste à l'âge de dix-huit ans (1889), L'Échelle dans le feuillage (1892), Madame Ranson au chat (circa 1892), La Légende de saint Hubert (1897), Régates à Perros-Guirec (1897), and Autoportrait devant le Prieuré (1921). The museum also holds works by Paul Gauguin, Charles Filiger, Paul Sérusier, Émile Bernard, Georges Lacombe, Paul-Élie Ranson, Odilon Redon, Raymonde Heudebert, Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Félix Vallotton, Théo Van Rysselberghe, François Quelvée, Władysław Ślewiński, and Piet Mondrian. Sculptures by Gauguin made in the Marquesas Islands are also present. The stained glass collection includes works by Denis, Albert Besnard, and Gruber.

The museum occupies Le Prieuré, an imposing building with an extensive wooded park to the south. The structure originated as a royal general hospital commissioned by Madame de Montespan in the seventeenth century. Maurice Denis rented the domain in 1910, purchased it in 1914 when the municipality decided to dispose of it, and renamed it after a neighbouring street. He added a studio in 1912 designed by the architect Auguste Perret. The adjacent chapel was restored and decorated by Denis between 1915 and 1928, with murals, stained glass executed with Marcel Poncet, and liturgical furniture, all placed under the patronage of Saint Martha following the death of his wife Marthe in 1919. The chapel was consecrated in 1922 and served as a neighbourhood church. Denis lived and worked at the Priory until his accidental death in November 1943.

The museum is located in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the Yvelines department, within the Île-de-France region. It is owned and operated by the departmental council of the Yvelines, reflecting its status as a musée départemental. Visitors can tour the chapel adjoining the main building, the studio built by Auguste Perret, and the wooded park. The association Amis du musée organises concerts and temporary exhibitions related to Symbolism and the Nabis, along with cultural activities for children and adults. The museum's website is https://www.musee-mauricedenis.fr/.