Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes , 1824-98, French mural painter, b. Lyons. In 1844 he went to Paris, where he studied under Delacroix and Couture. His painting War (Amiens), purchased by the state in 1861, established his reputation. From that time on he lived in Paris and painted mural decorations there and in other cities. Late in life he married his lifelong friend, Princess Marie Cantacuzène. They both died the following year. Although Puvis studied with the romanticists, his work is classical in inspiration. His chaste murals with their subdued color and allegorical figures are in the Hôtel de Ville, the Sorbonne, and the Panthéon, Paris, and in the Boston Public Library. His easel paintings can be found in many American and European galleries.

Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre (b Lyons, 14 Dec. 1824; d Paris, 24 Oct. 1898). The foremost French mural painter of the second half of the 19th century. He decorated many public buildings in France (for example, the Panthéon, the Sorbonne, and the Hôtel de Ville, all in Paris) and also Boston Public Library (Abbey and Sargent did murals here too). His paintings were done on canvas and then affixed to the walls (see marouflage), but their pale colours imitated the effect of fresco. He had only modest success early in his career (when a private income enabled him to work for little payment), but he went on to achieve an enormous reputation, and he was respected even by artists of very different aims and outlook from his own. Gauguin, Seurat, and Toulouse-Lautrec were among his professed admirers. His reputation has since declined, his idealized depictions of antiquity or allegorical representations of abstract themes now often seeming rather anaemic. He remains important, however, because of his extensive influence on younger artists. His simplified forms, respect for the flatness of the picture surface, rhythmic line, and use of non-naturalistic colour to evoke the mood of the painting appealed to both the Post-Impressionists and the Symbolists. In addition to murals he produced easel paintings and pastels, and he was a prolific draughtsman. According to some accounts he was the father of Utrillo.