DOI issue:
No. 380 (November 1924)
DOI article:Mourey, Gabriel: The centenary of Puvis de Chavannes
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21400#0267
THE CENTENARY OF PUVIS DE CHAVANNES
" l'et£." mural painting by
p. c. puvis de chavannes
(In the Petit Palais. Photo, Bulloz)
(Lyon, 1884, 1886); the decoration of
the Great Amphitheatre at the Sorbonne
(Paris, 1887) ; Inter Artes et Naturam
(Rouen, 1890); L'Ete, L'Hiver, Victor
Hugo offrant sa Lyre a la Ville de Paris
(Paris, Hotel de Ville, 1892, 1894);
decorations for the Library at Boston, 1895,
1896; Le Ravitaillement de Paris, Sainte-
Genevieve veille sur la Ville Endormie (Paris,
Pantheon, 1898). Besides these mural
paintings, there are such notable easel-pic-
tures as L'Automne, L'Esperance, Le Pauvre
Pecheur, Saint-Jean Baptiste, U Enfant
Prodigue, Orphee, Jeunes Filles au Bord
de la Mer, Le Sommeil and La Fantasie.
To make a list of these works is to call up
before the inner eye dream-memories
of limpid beauty, of harmony, of in-
exhaustible poetic and meditative motives,
which give form to the dreams and desires
formed by an ideal. It is to evoke recol-
lections of happiness and peace from a
magnificent and far-off past, towards
which our souls aspire, leaving behind
the deadly realities and too-insistent vul-
garities of our daily life, a a a
Indeed, we know that in the work of
Puvis de Chavannes we can find a refuge
from the littleness of everyday life, against
meanness and the ugliness in the midst
of which we have to pass most of our
time ; and the more these things offend
us, the more will his work become valued
and understood by us and the better shall
we understand and love its serene great-
ness and taste its joys, deriving comfort
and consolation from them. a a
These things are to be counted as benefits
arising from order, discipline, harmony
and meditation, the supremacy of intellect
over instinct and of reason over passion,
the everlasting nobility of self-possession,
the everlasting pre-eminence of the dream.
Thus this work, like all truly great works
of art, takes on a kind of religious character
and attains to a gravity and magnificence
of style which will enable it to defy the
assaults of time and remain ever fresh in
its imperishable beauty, a a a
It may be (though I very much doubt
it) that the means of expression employed
by this incomparable master, the technical
methods he used, are, as certain critics
in France and elsewhere now maintain,
247
" l'et£." mural painting by
p. c. puvis de chavannes
(In the Petit Palais. Photo, Bulloz)
(Lyon, 1884, 1886); the decoration of
the Great Amphitheatre at the Sorbonne
(Paris, 1887) ; Inter Artes et Naturam
(Rouen, 1890); L'Ete, L'Hiver, Victor
Hugo offrant sa Lyre a la Ville de Paris
(Paris, Hotel de Ville, 1892, 1894);
decorations for the Library at Boston, 1895,
1896; Le Ravitaillement de Paris, Sainte-
Genevieve veille sur la Ville Endormie (Paris,
Pantheon, 1898). Besides these mural
paintings, there are such notable easel-pic-
tures as L'Automne, L'Esperance, Le Pauvre
Pecheur, Saint-Jean Baptiste, U Enfant
Prodigue, Orphee, Jeunes Filles au Bord
de la Mer, Le Sommeil and La Fantasie.
To make a list of these works is to call up
before the inner eye dream-memories
of limpid beauty, of harmony, of in-
exhaustible poetic and meditative motives,
which give form to the dreams and desires
formed by an ideal. It is to evoke recol-
lections of happiness and peace from a
magnificent and far-off past, towards
which our souls aspire, leaving behind
the deadly realities and too-insistent vul-
garities of our daily life, a a a
Indeed, we know that in the work of
Puvis de Chavannes we can find a refuge
from the littleness of everyday life, against
meanness and the ugliness in the midst
of which we have to pass most of our
time ; and the more these things offend
us, the more will his work become valued
and understood by us and the better shall
we understand and love its serene great-
ness and taste its joys, deriving comfort
and consolation from them. a a
These things are to be counted as benefits
arising from order, discipline, harmony
and meditation, the supremacy of intellect
over instinct and of reason over passion,
the everlasting nobility of self-possession,
the everlasting pre-eminence of the dream.
Thus this work, like all truly great works
of art, takes on a kind of religious character
and attains to a gravity and magnificence
of style which will enable it to defy the
assaults of time and remain ever fresh in
its imperishable beauty, a a a
It may be (though I very much doubt
it) that the means of expression employed
by this incomparable master, the technical
methods he used, are, as certain critics
in France and elsewhere now maintain,
247