Puvis de Chavannes's work is seen as
symbolist in nature, even though he studied with some of the
romanticists, and he is credited with influencing an entire generation of painters and sculptors, particularly the works of the
Modernists. One of his protégés was
Georges de Feure.
Mural work Puvis de Chavannes is best known for his
mural painting, and came to be known as 'the painter for France.' His first commission was for his brother's chateau, Le Brouchy, a medieval-style structure near
Cuiseaux in Saône-et-Loire. The principal decorations take the four seasons as their theme. His first public commissions came early in the 1860s, with work at the Musée de Picardie at Amiens. The first four works were
Concordia (1861),
Bellum (1861),
Le Travail (Work; 1863) and
Le Repos (Rest; 1863). Between 1883 and 1886 he painted a mural for the
Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon.
The regions Over the course of his career, Puvis received a substantial number of commissions for works to be carried out in public and private institutions throughout France. His early work at the Musée de Picardie had helped him to develop his classicizing style, and the decorative aesthetic of his mural works. Among his public works are the later cycles completed at Amiens (
Ave Picardia Nutrix, 1865), at Marseille, at Lyon and at Poitiers. Of particular importance is the cycle at the Palais de Beaux Arts in Lyon, which includes three significant works, filling the wall space in the main staircase. From left to right, the works are
Antique Vision (1884),
The Wood Dear to the Arts and the Muses (1884), and
Christian Inspiration (1884).
Paris Puvis' career was tied up with a complicated debate that had been ongoing since the beginning of the Third Republic (1870), and at the end of the violence of the Paris Commune. The question at stake was the identity of France and the meaning of 'Frenchness'.
Royalists felt that the revolution of 1789 had been an immense disaster and that France had been thrown off course, while the Republicans felt that the Revolution had allowed France to revert to its true course. Consequently, works that were to be displayed in public spaces, such as murals, had the important task of fulfilling the ideology of the commissioning party. Many scholars of Puvis's works have noted that his success as a 'painter for France' was largely due to his ability to create works which were agreeable to the many ideologies in existence at this time. His first Parisian commission was for a cycle at the church of
Saint Genevieve, which is now the secular Pantheon, begun in 1874. His two subjects were ''L'Education de Sainte Geneviève
and La Vie Pastoral de Sainte Geneviève
. This commission was followed by works at the Sorbonne, namely the enormous hemicycle, The Sacred Grove
or L'Ancienne Sorbonne'' amongst the muses in the Grand Amphitheater of the
Sorbonne. His final commission in this trinity of Republican commissions was the crowning glory of Puvis's career, the works
Summer and
Winter, at the (City Hall) in Paris. Many of these works are characterized by their nod to classical art, visible in the careful balanced compositions, and the subject matter is frequently a direct reference to visions of
Hellenistic Greece, particularly in the case of
Antique Vision.
Works on canvas Puvis de Chavannes was president and co-founder in 1890 of the
Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (
National Society of Fine Arts) founded in
Paris. It became the dominant salon of art at the time and held exhibitions of contemporary art that was selected only by a jury composed of the officers of the Société. Those who translated best the spirit of the work of Puvis de Chavannes in their own creations were, in Germany, the painter
Ludwig von Hofmann and in France,
Auguste Rodin. His easel paintings also may be found in many American and European galleries. Some of these paintings are: ,
Williamstown •
Death and the Maiden •
The Dream •
The Poor Fisherman, 1881, oil on canvas •
Vigilance •
The Meditation •
Mary Magdalene at Saint Baume •
Saint Genoveva •
Young Girls at the Seaside, 1879, oil on canvas •
Mad Woman at the Edge of the Sea •
Hope •
Hope (nude) •
Kneeling nude woman, viewed from back •
The Sacred Grove As far as the appreciation of his life's work is concerned, Puvis de Chavannes was never properly understood by his contemporaries. At the beginning of his career, art criticism was divided into two camps. Adored by the idealists, he was despised by the partisans of the realists. Only with the advent of Symbolism did these two camps unite, but without achieving a convincing appreciation of the painter. Today's research has inherited this contradiction of art criticism and therefore still does not offer a convincing presentation of Puvis de Chavanne's art. == Personal life ==