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Monday
Nov142016

Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes: “The Painter for France”

DateMonday, November 14, 2016 at 9:35AM

Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes - The Pastoral Life of Saint Geneviève, 1879 - Oil on canvas, triptych - Left panel: 53 x 32 1/4 in. - Center panel: 53 x 35 1/8 in. - Right Panel: 52 3/4 x 32 1/4 in. - Norton Simon Museum - Pasadena, CA (click photo for larger image)French painter Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898) attempted to recreate something of the monumental Italian fresco style in his huge decorative canvases, painted in oils. He kept his images flat and pale in color—and simplified the drawing—to give something of the effect of fresco. He decorated many Town Halls and other official buildings in France.

The work featured here revisits, at reduced scale, a large mural he painted between 1874 and 1979 at the Parisian Church of Sainte Geneviève (today known as the Panthéon). 

An officially sanctioned and commercially successful artist of the late nineteenth century, Puvis de Chavannes nevertheless inspired admiration among the radical artists of the Nabi Generation. Les Nabis was a group of Post-Impressionist avant-garde artists who set the pace for fine and graphic arts in France, in the 1890s.

AuthorJill | CommentPost a Comment | Reference1 Reference |

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