Puvis de Chavannes was 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. His paintings were done on canvas and then affixed to the walls, but their pale colours imitated the effect of fresco. His monumental painted decorations depict a mythical, unnaturally serene golden age, a pre-industrial or even prehistoric era where all was milk and honey under balmy skies. Although these remote fictions of a timeless Garden of Eden were common to the repertory of academic artists, Puvis recreated them with a strongly personal flavour that, oddly enough, was acceptable to both the establishment and to many of the young artistic rebels of later decades. His generalized espousal of ancient beauty legitimized his work in the official world of public prizes and commissions, but his willfully primitive style opened quite different vistas. 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. |
