Studio: international art (88.1924)

THE CENTENARY OF PUVIS DE CHAVANNES

"LEREPOS." MURAL PAINTING
BY P. C. PUVIS DE CHAVANNES

(Amiens Museum; Photo, Hulloz)

sure, the novelist exclaimed: "The light has
come to him and will never leave him ! "

And, in fact, from this time till the day
of his death, thirty-seven years later, Puvis
de Chavannes was to continue to produce
masterpieces, under the impulsion of a
genius which became ever greater, deeper
and more full of simplicity as time went
on. He never ceased to infuse more of
logical order and sweetness into the great
designs with which he adorned the walls
of our palaces and museums, evolving a
new and most modern conception of mural
decoration which, nevertheless, had its
roots in tradition. He was constantly
purifying vision and form, ridding his
technique of all trace of mannerism, giving
life to abstractions with more ease, freedom
and fancy than had hitherto been done
by any other decorator, and drawing on
the resources of an incomparably well-
furnished imagination and a very wide
culture. a 0 a a a

With each of the creations of these thirty-
seven years of uninterrupted labour, his
genius became wider and more clear. The

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influence of Chasseriau, manifest in his
first attempts (notably Concordia and
Bellum) soon disappeared ; his art became
more and more static, and hence more
and more classical, while his serenity
became constantly greater. He adopted
colour-schemes limited to a comparatively
small range of tones, and thereby obtained
more striking effects ; his drawing became
more synthetic, and hence the reality of
his figures, their attitudes and movements,
and the truth of his landscapes, attained
a higher nobility. a a a a
The following are some of his principal
works :—Le Travail and Le Repos (Amiens,
1863); Ave Picardia Nutrix (Amiens,
1868); Marseille, Porte de VOrient, Mar-
seille, Colonie Grecque (Marseille, 1868);
Sainte Radegonde ecoutant une Lecture du
Poete Fortunat, Charles Martel, Vainqueur
du Sarrasin (Poitiers, 1874, 1875); L'En-
fance de Sainte-Genevieve (Paris, Pantheon,
1876, 1878); Doux Pays (Hotel Bonnat,
1882); Pro Patria Ludus (Amiens, 1882);
Le Bois Sacre, cher aux Arts et aux Muses,
L'Inspiration Chretienne, Vision Antique