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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41835 ***
+
+    MASTERPIECES
+    IN COLOUR
+    EDITED BY
+    M. HENRY ROUJON
+
+    PUVIS DE CHAVANNES
+
+    (1824-1898)
+
+
+
+
+_IN THE SAME SERIES_
+
+
+    REYNOLDS            RUBENS
+    VELASQUEZ           HOLBEIN
+    GREUZE              BURNE-JONES
+    TURNER              LE BRUN
+    BOTTICELLI          CHARDIN
+    ROMNEY              MILLET
+    REMBRANDT           RAEBURN
+    BELLINI             SARGENT
+    FRA ANGELICO        CONSTABLE
+    ROSSETTI            MEMLING
+    RAPHAEL             FRAGONARD
+    LEIGHTON            DÜRER
+    HOLMAN HUNT         LAWRENCE
+    TITIAN              HOGARTH
+    MILLAIS             WATTEAU
+    LUINI               MURILLO
+    FRANZ HALS          WATTS
+    CARLO DOLCI         INGRES
+    GAINSBOROUGH        COROT
+    TINTORETTO          DELACROIX
+    VAN DYCK            FRA LIPPO LIPPI
+    DA VINCI            PUVIS DE CHAVANNES
+    WHISTLER            MEISSONIER
+               MONTAGNA
+
+
+_IN PREPARATION_
+
+    GEROME              BOUCHER
+    VERONESE            PERUGINO
+              VAN EYCK
+
+[Illustration: PLATE I.--SAINT GENEVIEVE KEEPING WATCH OVER SLEEPING
+PARIS. Frontispiece
+
+(In the Panthéon, Paris)
+
+This composition, so great in its simplicity and so beautiful in
+execution, is the last work of the great artist. The model who posed for
+the saint watching over the city was Puvis de Chavannes' own wife. Both
+he and she died very shortly after its completion.]
+
+
+
+
+    Puvis
+    de Chavannes
+
+    ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT
+    REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR
+
+    [Illustration: IN SEMPITERNUM.]
+
+    NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO.
+
+
+
+
+    COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY
+    FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
+
+
+    [Illustration: April 1912]
+
+    THE·PLIMPTON·PRESS
+    [W·D·O]
+    NORWOOD·MASS·U·S·A
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                          Page
+    Introduction                                            11
+
+    The First Years                                         16
+
+    The Glorious Years                                      31
+
+    The Last Years                                          53
+
+    The Landscape Painter                                   66
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+    Plate
+       I. Saint Genevieve keeping Watch over
+            sleeping Paris                        Frontispiece
+              In the Panthéon, Paris
+
+                                                          Page
+      II. The Piety of Saint Genevieve                      14
+              In the Panthéon, Paris
+
+     III. The Poor Fisherman                                24
+              In the Musée de Luxembourg, Paris
+
+      IV. Ludus pro Patria                                  34
+              In the Museum, Amiens
+
+       V. Repose                                            40
+              In the Museum, Amiens
+
+      VI. The Sacred Wood dear to the Arts and the Muses    50
+              In the Museum, Amiens
+
+     VII. Letters, Sciences, and Arts                       60
+              In the Amphitheatre of the Sorbonne
+
+    VIII. War                                               70
+              In the Museum, Amiens
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Glory does not dispense her favours to the deserving with an equal
+bounty. Painters as well as authors often suffer from the caprices of
+the inconstant goddess. While there are some who, guided by her
+benevolent hand, attain the pinnacle of fortune at the first attempt
+and almost without effort, other artists with a genius akin to that of
+Millet live in a state bordering upon penury and die in destitution.
+Renown seeks them out later, much too late, and tardy laurels flower
+only upon their tomb.
+
+Puvis de Chavannes for a long time fared scarcely better than these
+illustrious mendicants of art. He experienced the bitter pangs of
+injustice, the hostility of ignorance, the discouragement of finding
+himself misunderstood. If he was spared the extreme distress of Millet,
+it was solely because he was the more fortunate of the two in possessing
+a small private income. But nothing can crush the spirit of the born
+artist; neither contempt nor ridicule can hold him back. Puvis de
+Chavannes was endowed with a valiant and a tenacious spirit. Entrenched
+within the loftiness of his artistic ideal, as within a tower of bronze,
+he was steadfastly scornful of critics, affecting not to hear them; and
+never would he consent to disarm them by concessions that in his eyes
+would have seemed dishonourable. Yet this rare probity brought its
+own reward. The great painter attained the joy of seeing himself at
+last understood, and not only understood but admired during his
+life-time. He must even have derived an ironic satisfaction from
+counting among his warmest adherents certain ones who had formerly been
+conspicuous as his most violent detractors.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE II.--THE PIETY OF SAINT GENEVIEVE
+
+(In the Panthéon, Paris)
+
+In this composition, exceptionally fine in feeling, Puvis de Chavannes
+shows how much importance he attached to landscape, which was the
+natural setting of his paintings, and which he treated with as much care
+as his personages themselves.]
+
+Today the glory of Puvis de Chavannes shines forth in uncontested
+splendour. No one dreams of comparing him with any of his
+contemporaries, because his art reveals no kinship with that of any one
+of them. He is recognized as the successor and the equal of the great
+fresco painters of the Italian Renaissance. Even to these he owes
+nothing, having borrowed nothing from them. But he shares with them his
+passionate love of truth, his nobility of inspiration and sincerity of
+execution. There are no longer insinuating and derisory shakings of the
+head in the presence of his works. One must be devoid of soul in order
+not to sense their beauty. Even the ignorant, in the presence of this
+form of art which they do not understand, gaze upon it with respectful
+wonder, as upon something very great, the content of which they fail to
+make out, although they realize its power from the inner emotion they
+experience.
+
+"My dear boy," wrote Puvis de Chavannes to one of his pupils, "direct
+your soul compass-like, towards some work of beauty; that is the way to
+achieve it in its entirety."
+
+It is because he directed his own soul, compass-like, only towards works
+of a noble and pure beauty, surrendering himself with all the ardour of
+his impetuous and vibrant nature, that Puvis de Chavannes has taken his
+place as one of the noblest figures, not only in contemporary painting,
+but also in the painting of all times.
+
+
+
+
+THE FIRST YEARS
+
+
+Pierre Puvis de Chavannes was born at Lyons, December 14, 1824. His
+parents were in affluent circumstances and were connected with one of
+the old Burgundian families. His father pursued the vocation of chief
+engineer of mines, at Lyons. In the registry of births, in which the
+new-born child was entered, the father is designated simply by the name
+of Marie-Julien-César Puvis. The honourable title of "de Chavannes,"
+claimed later and with good right by the family, was confirmed to him
+by a decree of the Court of Lyons, bearing date of May 20, 1859.
+
+Young Puvis de Chavannes was sent, first to the Lycée at Lyons, later to
+the Lycée Henri IV, at Paris. But nothing either in the boy's tastes or
+in his aptitudes gave any hint of his future vocation; he showed no
+special inclination for drawing, nor even for art in general. Son of a
+mining engineer, he applied himself naturally to the exact sciences; and
+he would probably have donned the uniform of a polytechnic student, had
+it not been for an illness which the family looked upon as most
+unfortunate, but which posterity regards as providential. The young man
+was forced to interrupt his studies and bid good-bye to mathematics. Two
+years later he took a trip to Italy, in the company of a young married
+couple. In true tourist fashion he made the rounds of museums and
+churches; he conscientiously inspected the great masterpieces in which
+the peninsula abounds; but, by his own admission, he brought back no
+real profit from his travels. They were not, however, entirely futile,
+since they awakened in him the desire to become a painter. Upon
+returning to France he announced his determination to his family, and
+having won their consent, entered the studio of Henri Scheffer, brother
+of Ary Scheffer.
+
+Italy, seen too hastily, had taught Puvis de Chavannes nothing: the
+studio hardly served him to better purpose. But, through contact with
+Henri Scheffer, he acquired a respect not only for art but for the
+conception which each one must form of it for himself. The young
+neophyte, who was destined in later years to be himself a living example
+of fidelity to an ideal, remained forever thankful to the author of
+_Charlotte Corday_ for having imbued him with this noble sentiment. He
+always retained of him, throughout life, an affectionate and grateful
+memory.
+
+Scheffer's paintings, however, were far from satisfying his personal
+conception of art. Before very long he left his studio and betook
+himself to that of Delacroix. The latter admitted him readily; but the
+new pupil was not slow in discovering that here again he was out of his
+element. The great romantic painter, although an admirable artist, was a
+mediocre instructor. He alone, for that matter, could risk the violent
+colour schemes with which he covered his canvases; his pupils succeeded
+only in accentuating a debauch of thick-spread pigments by coupling
+together tones that cried aloud from the walls of the studio. The
+instinct of harmony and of proportion which was already awakening in
+Puvis de Chavannes, revolted against these audacities: he found himself
+ill at ease in the midst of this orgy of colour. It was after no such
+fashion that nature appeared to his eyes. He had about made up his mind
+to leave the studio of Delacroix when the latter, angered by criticisms
+and piqued at seeing the attendance falling off, decided to close his
+doors.
+
+It was at this time that young Puvis entered the studio of Couture.
+There again his stay was brief, and we find in his work few traces of
+the lessons there received. Once again it was only the conventional and
+artificial that were held up as object lessons for that young soul
+enamoured of the truth, for those wide-opened eyes that saw nature
+precisely as she is, and not under the tinsel glitter of fantasy under
+which the studio of the period draped her. It followed that he learned
+nothing from that school; nevertheless, he did not disown it. In the
+annual Salon Catalogue, Puvis de Chavannes continued to proclaim himself
+a pupil of Scheffer and of Couture.
+
+Once again the young painter found himself without a master, yet still
+eager to learn and as yet equipped with only a mediocre and highly
+defective rudimentary training. Convinced that he would never obtain the
+right start in any of the studios of the French capital, he determined,
+in company of one of his friends, Beauderon de Vermeron, to go in search
+of definite guidance, back to that same Italy which he had visited the
+first time with such small profit. This time he studied all the periods,
+all the schools, all the methods of Italian painting; he visited both
+Rome and Florence; and yet all his sympathies, as he himself declared,
+went out instinctively to the Venetian school which had produced Titian,
+Tintoretto, and, greatest of all, Veronese, inimitable prince of fresco
+and of decoration.
+
+Returning to Paris, Puvis de Chavannes no longer dreamed of soliciting
+the guidance of any school; henceforth he was to pursue his own path,
+to give heed only to his own temperament, to draw his inspiration only
+from nature herself. In the Place Pigalle he hired a studio, the same
+which he was destined to occupy for forty-four years, and which he
+quitted only two years before his death. Later on he possessed another,
+at Neuilly, in which to work upon his larger compositions, since there
+would not have been space enough for them in the Montmartre studio.
+Whatever the weather, through cold and through heat, Puvis de Chavannes
+could be seen, for more than thirty years, making his way on foot, with
+long, rapid strides, from the Place Pigalle to Neuilly or in the reverse
+direction. This daily promenade grew to be a necessity; it was the sole
+recreation of this painter so enslaved by his art that in a certain
+sense he might be called a Benedictine of painting.
+
+In 1852, the date when his real career began, Puvis de Chavannes was
+twenty-eight years of age. He was at this time a handsome young fellow,
+tall of stature and large of frame, quick-witted, jovial and
+enthusiastic, and combining the whole-souled simplicity of the artist
+with the polished manners of a man of the world, inherited from his
+father. Many people conceive of Puvis de Chavannes as melancholy and
+sombre. Nothing could be further from the truth. He was fond of all the
+joys of living, friendly gatherings, abundant good cheer. But what he
+prized above all, thanks to the perfect balance of his physique, was the
+ability to apply his robust health to incessant work, which he pursued
+without intermission up to the day of his death.
+
+In 1850, Puvis de Chavannes made his début by sending to the Salon a
+_Pietà_, which was accepted. His joy was great, for it was the joy of
+the first step. Later on, his satisfaction in that picture diminished.
+It had certain defects, and gave evidence of inexperience, which the
+young painter was quick to perceive. That same year he painted _Jean
+Cavalier at the bed-side of his Mother_, and an _Ecce Homo_, bold in
+execution and violent in tone.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE III.--THE POOR FISHERMAN
+
+(In the Musée de Luxembourg, Paris)
+
+No one else, excepting Millet, had the skill to render with so much
+truth the physical and moral distress of the unfortunate. This resigned
+fisherman, bending his back under the inclement sky, is a veritable
+masterpiece, both in execution and in observation.]
+
+In 1852, the pictures which he submitted to the Salon were rejected by
+the jury, and this ostracism continued for several years. It was an
+epoch when every effort towards artistic independence was officially and
+systematically repressed. The young artist was not alone in
+disfavour; he shared it with a number of his friends, some of whom were
+already famous, or at least well known. Equally with himself, Courbet,
+Dupré, Barye, Rousseau, Millet, Troyon, Corot, Diaz and Delacroix found
+themselves ejected from the doors of the temple. In the eyes of the
+Academy, they were all of them madmen or revolutionaries; for his part,
+he was treated with less honour: he was regarded as a maniac of no
+importance. His exclusion lasted for nine years, during which the
+critics and the public united in making him the target for their
+sarcasms.
+
+Puvis de Chavannes was always keenly sensitive to criticism; it cut him
+to the quick, but he prided himself on showing no outward sign. He
+repaid it by affecting the most complete disdain. When anyone in his
+presence bestowed only a qualified praise on one of his works, his lips
+would betray his scorn in a faint crease, which Rodin, another
+misunderstood giant, has admirably caught in his buste of the painter.
+As it happened, however, Puvis de Chavannes was rarely fortunate in
+having the encouragement and support of such an admirable companion as
+the Princess Cantacuzène. That splendid woman, of exceptional
+intelligence and distinction, enjoyed art and understood it; she fell in
+love with Puvis de Chavannes and became his wife. "Whatever I am and
+whatever I have done," wrote the painter, "is all due to her."
+Throughout more than forty years, she filled the rôle of beneficent
+genius to the artist, the Egeria whose voice he never failed to heed.
+Puvis de Chavannes had worshipped faithfully at her shrine; and when she
+died, he felt that the term of his own life had reached its end. He
+survived her scarcely more than a few months.
+
+Under the shelter of her far-sighted affection, the artist closed his
+ears to hostile comments, and followed his bent, without trying to
+modify his manner of seeing and feeling nature. None the less, the
+paintings of this period are far from perfect; a certain constraint is
+apparent in them, due to inexperience and also to some lingering
+influence either of his studio training or of Italy. _The Martyrdom of
+St. Sebastian_, _The Village Firemen_, _Meditation_, _Herodiade_,
+_Julie_, _Saint Camilla at the_ _bedside of a dying man_, while they
+reveal some very genuine personal qualities, are none the less somewhat
+reminiscent of the manner of Couture, by whom he seems to have been most
+directly influenced.
+
+His first real picture, the one which first marked and fixed for all
+time the artist's personality, was _Peace_, now in the Museum at Amiens.
+So much knowledge and so much harmony were displayed in this picture
+that the jury simply did not dare reject it. What is more, it won for
+its author a medal of the second class. He was not slow in giving it a
+companion piece, in the shape of a painting entitled _War_, which is now
+also at Amiens.
+
+In the first of these pictures, the one consecrated to the pleasures of
+_Peace_, everything seems quite academic, the poses, the composition,
+the countenances: and yet, there is no stiffness, everything is vibrant,
+alive, palpitating in a serene and luminous atmosphere. The artist has
+herein magnificently demonstrated the truth of a phrase which he wrote
+to Ary Renan, in the course of a trip which the latter took to Italy:
+"Just as you yourself feel and have very well expressed, no study of
+other artists' work can trammel one's originality." Neither the memory
+of Italy nor the influence of Couture had prevented him from asserting
+himself, and that, too, vigorously.
+
+_War_ is, if anything, superior to _Peace_. The painter is here wholly
+himself. There is no longer in his work any trace of outside influence.
+And what vigour there is, what eloquence, in the simplicity of the
+composition! Is there in existence a more admirable argument against war
+and its horrors? Beside the corpse of a young warrior, a father and
+mother are prostrated, voicing aloud their anguish; and meanwhile the
+conquerors, approaching from the far horizon black with devastation and
+slaughter, blow their victorious trumpets and urge their horses forward
+towards the group of mourners.
+
+From that moment, Puvis de Chavannes began to command attention. He was
+discussed more acrimoniously, more passionately than ever; no one could
+neglect him nor pretend not to have heard of him.
+
+The government bought _Peace_, but refused to purchase _War_, in spite
+of the fact that the two paintings were companion pieces. In order to
+prevent them from being separated, the artist generously donated the
+second picture.
+
+In 1863 came a new series representing _Labour_ and _Rest_. Faithful to
+his principles, the author gathers together on his canvas the entire
+cycle of actions and ideas suggested by his subject.
+
+In _Labour_ he has placed in the foreground a group of blacksmiths,
+representing, in his eyes, the fully developed type of the worker,
+because of the degree of their exertion, the vigour of their action.
+While two of them stir the fire, the others, armed with heavy sledges,
+strike alternate blows upon the anvil. At no great distance, some
+carpenters are squaring the trunks of trees; beyond, on the plain, a
+peasant can be seen, guiding his ploughshare through its furrow. In the
+foreground there is also a woman, nursing a young child. The entire
+cycle of human toil is glorified in this single painting.
+
+_Repose_ shows us an old man seated, giving to the young folk grouped
+around him wise counsel, drawn from his long experience. Nothing could
+be more graceful than the relaxed postures of the different figures,
+who, we feel, are listening with real attention.
+
+Since these four pictures, _Peace_, _War_, _Labour_, _Repose_, were the
+interpretation of general ideas, the artist could not give them any
+precise setting, any local colour. The nude, which is employed for all
+the figures, was his sole means of obtaining absolute truth.
+
+Already at this period one perceives in Puvis an anxious endeavour to
+sacrifice all the little easy methods of winning acclaim, in order to be
+free to concern himself solely with the harmony of his subject as a
+whole. Throughout his entire life, he was destined to have no greater
+preoccupation than that of effacing himself completely, and forcing the
+public, when in the presence of his work, to see nothing but the work
+itself and to give not a thought to the painter.
+
+During the year 1864, the results of Puvis de Chavannes' industry were
+fairly abundant. At the Salon, he exhibited two very beautiful canvases,
+_Autumn_ and _Sleep_.
+
+The first of these two pictures is symbolic and represents the different
+ages of life in the form of women of unequal years. One of them, her
+pensive face already marked with lines, watches her companions gathering
+flowers and fruit, symbols of youth.
+
+This work, charming in composition, is now in the collection of the
+Museum at Lyons.
+
+_Sleep_, a large decorative composition, after the manner of _Peace_ and
+_War_, is in the Museum at Lille.
+
+
+
+
+THE GLORIOUS YEARS
+
+
+All these works, acrimoniously discussed and unjustly attacked by the
+critics, made the name of Puvis de Chavannes widely known without
+augmenting his reputation. The general public, habituated to the
+stereotyped, elaborate, ornate school, understood nothing of such
+deceptive simplicity. His canvases would not sell. Even the government
+had made no more purchases since its acquisition of _Peace_. It had even
+refused to acquire _War_, when the artist offered it. As we have already
+said, sooner than have the two pictures separated, Puvis made up his
+mind to donate it.
+
+Commissions failed to come in, and nothing afforded hope that this
+condition of affairs was likely to change, when chance threw in the path
+of Puvis de Chavannes a man whose providential intervention completely
+transformed his destiny.
+
+At about this epoch the city of Amiens had started to build a museum.
+The architect of this enterprise, M. Diot, came to see Puvis de
+Chavannes and said to him:
+
+"I saw your paintings in the Salon of 1861, and was greatly pleased with
+them. In the edifice which I am at present constructing, there are some
+vast surfaces to be covered. Are your two pictures, _Peace_ and _War_,
+still in your possession? I could find immediate use for them."
+
+Puvis de Chavannes replied that the two paintings in question belonged
+to the State. The city of Amiens immediately solicited the concession of
+them, which was courteously granted.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE IV.--LUDUS PRO PATRIA
+
+(In the Museum, Amiens)
+
+This great composition, of which the present plate gives only a
+fragment, is numbered among the most beautiful productions of Puvis de
+Chavannes, because of the harmony of its parts, the nobility of the
+postures and the charm of its detail.]
+
+The paintings were placed in the grand gallery on the first floor, where
+they produced a most beautiful decorative effect. Puvis de Chavannes,
+delighted at this unhoped-for good fortune, offered to complete the
+decoration of the gallery, by painting the panels occupying the
+spaces between the windows. The illumination is exceedingly bad, but
+with infinite art the painter succeeded in harmonizing his compositions
+with the atmosphere and light of the room. It should be noted further
+that the subjects treated in the panels on the right gallery relate to
+the picture of _War_, which faces them; they are a _Standard-Bearer_ and
+a _Woman weeping over the ruins of her home_. The same holds true of the
+painting consecrated to _Peace_, the corresponding panels being a
+_Harvester_ and a _Woman spinning_.
+
+Puvis de Chavannes considered himself fortunate in having two of his
+works which he so greatly loved find a place in a museum. The
+municipality of Amiens was none the less delighted in possessing them;
+it gave proof of this by once more sending its municipal architect to
+him on a special embassy:
+
+"I need two more mural paintings to decorate the main staircase of the
+museum. Do you happen to have what I need ready made, as you did the
+other time?"
+
+The architect was jesting. Puvis de Chavannes betook himself to a
+corner of his studio, and unrolling two canvases, presented them to M.
+Diot:
+
+"Here are what you want. These two pictures are of the same dimensions
+as _Peace_ and _War_; they represent _Repose_ and _Labour_ and form part
+of the same series. Will they serve your purpose?"
+
+They served the architect's purpose to perfection. Unfortunately the
+city of Amiens did not have the money to pay for them. The difficulty
+was explained to the artist who, with his customary disinterestedness,
+made a present of both the paintings. They were soon stretched in the
+places for which they were intended, in a framework of fruits and
+flowers, and produced an admirable effect. The municipality of Amiens
+was so well satisfied with these paintings that it decided at the cost
+of great sacrifices to commission Puvis de Chavannes to prepare a large
+composition destined to occupy the entire upper panel of the staircase
+on the side of the grand gallery. This panel was intersected by two
+doorways.
+
+Puvis de Chavannes set to work immediately. In the Salon of 1865 he
+exhibited his _Ave Picardia Nutrix_, destined for the Museum of Amiens.
+
+The painting produced a veritable sensation. Even the unskilled in art
+experienced an instinctive emotion in the presence of this important
+canvas which they did not fully understand, but which they felt to be
+sincere; as to the artists, they were obliged to acknowledge that the
+painter whom they had scoffed and derided, and who had now produced the
+_Picardia Nutrix_, was unquestionably a master.
+
+The _Ave Picardia Nutrix_ is a glorification of the fertility and
+richness of the land of Picardy. The artist has wished to represent in a
+succession of episodes, harmoniously related one to another, all the
+products of the soil and all the local industries from which Picardy
+draws its prosperity.
+
+To this end he has grouped his figures in the setting of a Picardian
+landscape, quite faithful in colour and in line. M. Marius Vachon
+analyzes the painting as follows:
+
+"Beneath the orchard of a vast estate some peasants are turning a flour
+mill; women are bringing apples for a keg of cider; masons are building
+the walls of a house, and an old woman is spinning on her distaff the
+native hemp. Along the banks of a stream, women are weaving fish nets;
+carpenters are constructing a bridge; boatmen are steering heavy-laden
+barges. Add to these professional labours the incidents of work-a-day
+life, which are taking place on every side, charming incidents,
+picturesque and touching; a little lad, carrying a heavy basket of fruit
+on his head, eager to show his strength before his elders; a mother,
+nursing her youngest born; some women bathing under the shadow of the
+willows. The composition is abundantly suggestive of delicate
+impressions; and it forms a magnificent decoration for the edifice in
+which it has been placed."
+
+When the painting had been installed in its position in the vestibule of
+honour on the main floor, the municipality of Amiens perceived that the
+fourth side of the staircase, the only one not decorated, was precisely
+the one that best lent itself to the development of a painting, because
+of its considerable surface. The ceiling, it is true, darkened this
+vestibule, owing to its insufficient window space. It was, furthermore,
+adorned by a painting by Barrias. Nevertheless the city determined
+to replace the ceiling by a skylight, on condition that Puvis de
+Chavannes would paint the vacant panel thus made available.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE V.--REPOSE
+
+(In the Museum, Amiens)
+
+This work is one of the earliest by this great artist. It is very
+interesting, because it still shows the influence of Couture's studio,
+where Puvis de Chavannes had been a pupil. It serves as a point of
+comparison for determining the evolution of the artist's talent.]
+
+However, the resources of the municipality did not permit it to incur so
+great an expense. It appealed to the State, which curtly refused its
+coöperation. The city fathers of Amiens were in despair, the painter not
+less so. What was to be done? Wait until the municipality, through slow
+economies, was in a position to order the picture? Puvis de Chavannes,
+who had grown enthusiastic over the task, was boiling with impatience
+and listened day by day, as he expressed it, to hear if no breeze was
+blowing his way from Amiens.
+
+But when the breeze remained persistently unfavourable, Puvis de
+Chavannes, growing tired of waiting, decided to execute the panel in any
+case, come what might. And he composed the admirable fresco which bears
+the name of _Ludus pro Patria_.
+
+Everyone knows the subject of this painting, which has passed into a
+legend. In a plain traversed by a running stream, some young men are
+engaged in a game of rivalry with spears. On a knoll, an old man,
+surrounded by women, serves as umpire. He follows, with attentive eye,
+the fluctuations of the game, while a young lad, in a pose charming for
+its relaxation, rests one arm around his neck. Behind him a young woman
+holds out her baby for its father to kiss. On the left of the picture,
+seated at the foot of a tree, or grouped around a fountain, young girls
+await the end of the game in which their brothers or their betrothed
+take part. One of them leans towards an aged minstrel and begs him to
+play some dance music after the game is over.
+
+All these groups are harmoniously disposed in an open-air setting,
+dotted over with cottages and stately trees, enveloped in a soft and
+mellow light.
+
+This picture reveals the artist's predilection for children, a very
+curious and touching predilection to discover in a painter whose own
+fireside was never gladdened by childish laughter. Let us examine the
+_Ludus pro Patria_; in this picture Puvis de Chavannes has been lavish
+of childhood games and pastimes. Notwithstanding that his art was before
+all else synthetic, and gained its effects from harmony of attitude
+rather than from finish of figures, he plainly expended loving care in
+modelling those delicate and charming little bodies, which he has
+endowed with infinite grace. Is there anything more adorably exquisite
+than the gesture of the infant stretching out its plump arms towards its
+father? And does not the child standing before the group by the fountain
+reveal the master's tender solicitude for these little beings whose
+absence from his domestic life he probably regretted?
+
+The distinguished custodian of the Museum at Amiens showed me the corner
+of the balustrade on which the painter rested his elbows, in front of
+the group of which that child forms part. After some moments of
+contemplation, he might be seen to mount his scaffolding, brush in hand,
+to add a few strokes, some new tint to that delightfully modelled little
+form.
+
+The _Ludus pro Patria_ is something more and something better than a
+beautiful picture; it is a symbolic work in which the noblest
+conceptions of patriotism are exalted. With his incomparable synthetic
+art, Puvis de Chavannes has endeavoured to show all the diverse manners
+of serving usefully one's native land. Young women, bearing the tender
+burden of nursing children, are rearing for their country a valiant
+generation, which before long will be augmented through the robust girls
+grouped on the left, awaiting the advent of husbands. The children,
+grown to manhood, will practise games of strength and skill which will
+render them capable of defending their common patrimony. The old man
+himself has his rôle assigned in this ideal commonwealth; ripened by
+experience of life, he supplements the feebleness of his arms by the
+wisdom of his lessons; he is the honoured counsellor, the arbiter of
+full justice, who restrains the ardor of youth within the path of
+reason.
+
+The cartoon for this magnificent panel was exhibited in the Salon of
+1881; it achieved a unanimous success. The State acquired it, and at the
+same time commissioned Puvis to paint the picture itself for the Museum
+of Picardy. The finished work, in its proper dimensions, found a place
+in the Salon the following year, and gained its author the medal of
+honour from the Society of French Artists.
+
+We have followed Puvis de Chavannes in his decoration of the Museum of
+Amiens, from the beginning to the end of his artistic career, without
+regard to chronological order, because of the interest which he himself
+took in this extensive work, which was, one might say, his constant
+preoccupation. Accordingly we must go back in point of time and follow
+step by step this astonishing and genial worker whose accomplishment is
+disconcerting in its power and its fecundity.
+
+The first works executed for the Museum of Amiens had attracted public
+attention to him. The municipality of Marseilles had just crowned the
+important enterprise of bringing the waters of the Durance into the
+city, by erecting a sumptuous Public Waterworks, bearing the name of the
+Palace of Longchamps.
+
+Two great mural surfaces enclose the principal staircase. It was decided
+to decorate them with paintings. And when the time came to choose the
+artist, a unanimous agreement was reached on the name of Puvis de
+Chavannes.
+
+The latter, being notified, accepted joyfully, as he accepted all
+occasions of converting a noble vision of art into a reality. And what
+finer fortune could come to an artist that to celebrate Marseilles, the
+sun-bathed city, vibrant with light, crouching royally on the azure
+mantle of the Mediterranean?
+
+Puvis de Chavannes hastened to the ancient Ligurian city. He calculated
+the difficulties of composing a great decorative composition, free from
+banality, out of the habitual elements of a seaport,--a subject a
+thousand times treated and perilous of execution. He sought, he studied,
+he promenaded the quays, he strode the length and breadth of the city.
+At last the enlightening flash he awaited came in the course of a trip
+to the Chateau d'If. In the presence of that noble panorama of the city
+seen from the sea, he remained as if dazed, realizing that he had found
+what he was in search of. He would not paint Marseilles with the sea as
+a decorative background; it was the city herself that should form the
+background, and not the sea. He had his two pictures in his grasp.
+
+And without stirring from the spot, while his friends took luncheon, he
+remained seated on the rocks, making notes and sketches, in order to
+fix fully in his mind "the line and colour of that marvellous maritime
+landscape."
+
+The first of these pictures, _Marseilles the Greek Colony_, stands for
+the entire history of the Phocian city from its foundation to the
+present time. But, following his essentially synthetic method, he
+painted, not the successive transformations of Marseilles, but symbolic
+figures of the sources to which she owes her grandeur and her
+prosperity.
+
+In the background is the strand, which as yet is only a natural harbour.
+Along the shore, vessels are seen building; these are the symbol of
+activity. Further off, horses are bringing merchandise towards the boats
+about to sail, symbol of the commercial instinct; masons, carpenters,
+stonecutters, are zealously plying their craft; and palaces,
+storehouses, and churches arise, symbols of wealth and of taste in art.
+
+Among the accessory features are a woman vendor spreading before other
+women rich fabrics and pearls, and some slaves conveying towards the
+city jars of oil and skins filled with wine.
+
+In _Marseilles, Gateway of the East_, a ship is seen, laden with
+travellers, making its way into port. All these passengers are
+Orientals, recognizable by the gaudiness of their garments: they admire
+the panorama of the rich city whose fortifications, churches, and
+palaces stand out in bold relief against the ruddy light of evening.
+
+An atmosphere of warmth and brilliance emanates from these two
+paintings, of which the city of Marseilles has shown herself justly
+proud.
+
+When Puvis de Chavannes received a commission for a mural painting he
+gave himself ardently to his task, but at the same time intermittently.
+Contrary to a generally accepted belief, his genius was not the result
+of "long patience," but rather the realization of a vision. He never
+applied himself to a painting if some external cause, no matter what,
+had deadened in him the essential inspiration. In such a case, he would
+revert to some other work which his mind could "see better" on that
+particular day. In this way we can understand how he could carry forward
+simultaneously several works of equal importance, and at the same time
+paint in addition occasional easel pictures.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE VI.--THE SACRED WOOD, DEAR TO THE ARTS AND THE
+MUSES
+
+(In the Museum, Amiens)
+
+This painting, admirable in execution, is quite interesting to study,
+because it serves to show in what a purely personal manner, wholly
+detached from mythological traditions, Puvis de Chavannes interpreted
+Antiquity.]
+
+Following the example of Marseilles and Amiens, the city of Poitiers,
+which in 1872 had just completed the building of a City Hall,
+commissioned Puvis de Chavannes to decorate the main staircase.
+
+The two subjects chosen by the artist, with the approbation of the
+municipality, were as follows:
+
+First panel:--"Radegonde, having retired to the Convent of the Holy
+Cross, offers an asylum to the poets and protects Literature against the
+barbarism of those days."
+
+Second panel:--"The year 732: Charles Martel saves Christendom by his
+victory over the Saracens near Poitiers."
+
+The legend of Radegonde is well known: "The virtuous spouse of Clotaire,
+fleeing from the brutality of that crowned free-booter and hiding in a
+convent in order to escape his pursuit." But this convent is by no means
+a cloister; the practice of arts and letters is pursued alternately with
+the singing of psalms.
+
+The door stands open to poets. One of them, Fortunatus, passing through
+Poitiers, stops there and is received with cordial hospitality, and
+conceiving for the saintly queen a delicate and chaste love, he remains
+for twenty years in this abode in which he purposed to spend only a few
+days.
+
+Puvis de Chavannes has magnificently rendered the poetic beauty of this
+historic episode by representing one of the fêtes given by Radegonde in
+the Convent of the Holy Cross.
+
+In the second panel, we see Charles Martel returning to Poitiers,
+victorious over the Saracens and receiving the benediction of the
+bishops. Here the artist's brush attains a vigour of expression such as
+in all his life he found but few occasions to employ. The countenances
+of the bishops, notably, stand out with a relief and an energy that are
+remarkable.
+
+M. Marius Vachon relates that he once asked the artist, who was a
+personal friend, to what documents he had recourse in order to give such
+forbidding features to the prelates in his painting:
+
+"I got the suggestion for them," he replied, laughing, "from an old set
+of chess men, consisting of the coarse and grouchy faces of knights and
+jesters."
+
+
+
+
+THE LAST YEARS
+
+
+In the days following the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune, the
+Government conceived the project of decorating the Panthéon, which had
+just been once more secularized, in order to convert it into a temple
+wherein all the shining lights of the nation could be brought together
+and honoured.
+
+M. de Chennevières, who at that time was director of the Beaux Arts gave
+the first place, in that illustrious line, to the noble and serene
+Genevieve, patron saint of Paris, incarnate ideal of patriotism.
+
+Accordingly it was a series of religious paintings that M. de
+Chennevières required of Puvis de Chavannes, when he entrusted him with
+a large share of the decoration.
+
+This type of painting, although new to Puvis de Chavannes, failed to
+intimidate him. He had too much patriotic fire, more than enough
+Christian faith, and above all too thorough a mastery of his profession
+not to approach this task with full confidence. It is enough to visit
+the Panthéon just once in order to be convinced of this. A more
+magnificent realization of Saint Genevieve could not be conceived of,
+even in dreams. But are these paintings to be classed with religious
+art? One would hesitate to assert it, if the pictures habitually
+consecrated to religious themes are to be taken as a standard. But they
+are something better than that, because the virgin protectress of Paris
+is in these pictures profoundly human; she is brought very close to us,
+and we see her despoiled of the aureole that would have removed her too
+far from our vision and our hearts.
+
+The whole world knows, at least through reproductions, the series of
+paintings consecrated to the life of this saint. First of all, we have
+Saint Genevieve as a child, singled out from a crowd by Saint Germain,
+because she is marked with the divine seal. "I chose the hour," wrote
+Puvis de Chavannes, "at which history claimed possession of this heroic
+woman. These two are not an old man and a child, they are two great
+souls face to face. The glance which they ardently exchange is, in its
+moral significance, the culminating point of the composition."
+
+Next in order comes the _Piety of Saint Genevieve_. The pious child is
+at her prayers before a cross formed by two interlacing branches. This
+is the prologue of a life filled with miracles, divine recompense
+accorded only to supernatural virtue. The artist has admirably
+reproduced the mystic fervour of that child whose future was
+foreordained to be so beautiful.
+
+Subsequently, in 1896, the Government entrusted Puvis de Chavannes with
+the execution of two new panels, likewise dedicated to the life of Saint
+Genevieve. The two themes chosen were the following:
+
+"Ardent in her faith and in her charity, Genevieve, whom the greatest
+perils could not swerve from her duty, brings sustenance to Paris,
+besieged and threatened with famine."
+
+"Genevieve, sustained by her pious solicitude, keeps watch over sleeping
+Paris."
+
+These noble paintings were the last productions of the great artist. A
+sort of premonition told him that the end was near, in spite of his
+robust health. "How I shall devote myself to the Panthéon," he wrote,
+"when I am finished with the Hôtel de Ville! I intend it to be a sort of
+last will and testament."
+
+In these last paintings, Saint Genevieve is no longer a child. Having
+attained womanhood, her saintliness is such that, from all sides, people
+come to take shelter behind her veil, like children around their mother,
+as soon as danger is announced.
+
+For the purpose of portraying this hieratic and inspired figure, Puvis
+de Chavannes found the ideal model close at hand, in the noble woman who
+had associated her entire life with his. _Genevieve bringing sustenance
+to Paris_ is the artist's wife who, already mortally ill, inflicted upon
+herself the most cruel suffering, in order to pose in her husband's
+studio. The disease which was killing her was known only to herself, and
+she had the heroism to conceal it up to the supreme hour when, conquered
+at last, she was stricken down. In painting the pensive and dolorous
+attitude of _Genevieve watching over sleeping Paris_, the poor artist
+never once suspected that he was tracing for the last time the portrait
+of her who had been the consolation and the joy of his whole existence.
+
+The unfortunate woman lacked the strength to play her rôle to the end;
+she was forced to take to her bed. The artist, no less heroic than she,
+feeling that his own life was slipping away with hers, yet wishing to
+complete this last work,--his testament--transported his easel beside
+the dying woman's bed, and there finished the sketches for his picture.
+
+In the intervals of time between the paintings executed for the
+Panthéon, Puvis de Chavannes produced certain other large compositions
+in no wise inferior either in importance or in merit, notably, in 1883,
+a large painting for the Palace of Arts, at Lyons.
+
+The municipal government of that city, wishing to have the main
+staircase of the palace decorated, entrusted the execution to the great
+artist who was at the same time a compatriot. He felt a very special joy
+in accepting this commission, for he had always retained a vivid memory
+of the city of his birth.
+
+He endowed it with three pictures of a very high order, one of which,
+_The Sacred Wood, dear to the Arts and the Muses_, is considered by many
+to be the artist's masterpiece.
+
+Puvis de Chavannes breaks away from the mythological theme so often
+treated that it has become hackneyed. It is not on Helicon that he
+groups his Muses, but on the shore of a lake, in a setting of verdure
+softly illuminated by the rays of the moon. At the foot of a portico,
+Calliope is seen declaiming verses before her sisters. Some of the Muses
+appear attentive; others converse together; one of them is reclining
+lazily upon the grass. Euterpe and Thalia, heralded from the sky by song
+and the accompanying lyre, approach to join the group.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE VII.--LETTERS, SCIENCES AND ARTS (detail)
+
+(In the Amphitheatre of the Sorbonne)
+
+In this immense composition, in which the groups are balanced with
+admirable harmony, there is an exalted and pervading beauty. It makes
+itself felt in the prevailing mood of the subject as a whole, in the
+expressions of the several characters, in the naturalness of their
+attitudes and in the luminous clarity of the landscape.]
+
+Antiquity, as treated by Puvis de Chavannes, loses nothing of its
+nobility, but quite the contrary. It even gains in real beauty, because
+his Muses profit by being despoiled of those conventional attitudes, in
+which an immutable tradition has trammelled them. The artist has
+retained only such of their attitudes as cannot detract in any way from
+the naturalness of their movements or their lines.
+
+In the same Palace of Arts, Puvis de Chavannes painted two additional
+allegorical panels representing _The Rhone and The Saône_, both of which
+are admirably effective.
+
+To about the same period belongs his well known painting, _The Poor
+Fisherman_, at present in the Musée du Luxembourg.
+
+In this work, which he painted as a relaxation from his more extensive
+efforts, Puvis de Chavannes has tried to portray, as Millet so often
+did, all the sordid and lamentable misery of the slaves of toil, who
+bend their poor aching backs beneath the burden of physical distress and
+mental degradation. This work is a fine and eloquent lesson in
+humanity.
+
+In 1889, the Hôtel de Ville, in Paris, proceeding with the still
+unfinished decoration of its numerous halls and chambers, entrusted
+Puvis de Chavannes with the task of decorating the main staircase and
+the first salon in the suite of reception rooms.
+
+On one wall of this salon, he painted _Winter_, on the other _Summer_.
+These two compositions are of imposing dimensions and admirable in
+execution.
+
+_Winter_ shows us a snow-clad stretch of forest landscape. Woodsmen are
+hauling the trunks of trees which others of their number have just
+felled. Nothing could be more impressive than his rendering of the
+desolation of winter; and the truth, the exactitude of the physical
+effort these men are putting forth, with every muscle straining tensely
+on the rope.
+
+_Summer_ shows us a delightful and smiling landscape flooded with light;
+bathing women plunge their nude forms beneath the water, while a mother,
+seated on the grass, nurses her new born child. In this picture Puvis de
+Chavannes, who was a landscape painter of the first order, has
+surpassed himself; the work is a miracle of open air and grateful shade.
+
+Unfortunately, the room in which these two magnificent pictures are
+placed suffers from a deplorable want of light, and its scanty
+dimensions make it impossible to stand back at a sufficient distance to
+see them to advantage. The Hôtel de Ville should for its own credit
+assign them a place more in keeping with their worth.
+
+For the museum at Rouen, Puvis de Chavannes painted an allegory entitled
+_Inter Artes et Naturam_, charming in fantasy and poetic feeling.
+According to his habit, he has grouped together in synthetic form the
+various things which constitute the wealth or serve to mark the
+characteristics of the province of Normandy.
+
+Labourers heaping up architectural fragments preserved from all the
+various epochs proclaim the variety and antiquity of its monuments; its
+special art is represented by a young girl painting a tulip on a
+porcelain plate and by a lad carrying a tray of pottery; its principal
+agricultural richness is revealed by the action of a woman, bending down
+a branch of an apple-tree, in order that her child may reach the fruit.
+And at the bottom of the picture flows the Seine, rolling its flood past
+a long sequence of manufactories, and bearing in its course heavily
+laden boats.
+
+This picture is one of Puvis de Chavannes' most ingenious conceptions;
+furthermore, it possesses great charm of detail.
+
+In 1891, the trustees of the Boston Museum approached Puvis de Chavannes
+with a request to decorate the main staircase of that edifice.
+
+The negotiations were troublesome. In spite of his delight at having a
+new work to produce, in spite of the legitimate pride he felt in this
+homage paid to French art, Puvis de Chavannes hesitated to accept the
+commission. For the first time he faced the necessity of painting a
+canvas without having studied beforehand the physiognomy, the
+environment, the illumination of the space he was to decorate, and his
+artist's conscience suffered. Besides, certain misunderstandings had
+arisen between American trustees and the painter; several times
+relations were on the point of being broken off; and no definite
+agreement was reached until after the lapse of four years.
+
+Puvis de Chavannes began this work in 1895; he did not finish it until
+1898. The surface to be covered was to be divided into nine large
+panels, three facing the entrance, three to the right, three to the
+left. The choice of subjects was left to him.
+
+For the central panel Puvis de Chavannes chose a theme already treated
+twice by him: _The inspiring Muses acclaim Genius, Messenger of Light_.
+
+Against a background of sea and of blue sky, a Genius with the radiant
+features of a child advances, holding a torch in each hand. At sight of
+the Genius the muses run forward and range themselves on each side.
+
+The ninth muse, still floating through the air, hastens to rejoin her
+companions.
+
+This whole charming group of women is deliciously painted and one is at
+a loss which to admire the more; the originality of the artistic
+conception, or the peculiarly rare delicacy of the painter's skill.
+
+The eight subordinate panels represent _Bucolic Poetry_, _Dramatic
+Poetry_, _Epic Poetry_, _History_, _Astronomy_, _Physics_, _Chemistry_
+and _Philosophy_. All these paintings produce a decorative effect of the
+highest order, and many critics consider, not without reason, that this
+group of frescoes in the Boston Library constitutes the masterpiece of
+Puvis de Chavannes.
+
+However that may be, the authorities of the great American city are very
+proud of this absolutely unique decorative ensemble, and whenever any
+distinguished stranger passes through Boston he is conducted to admire
+it. Is not this a beautiful homage to French art, of which Puvis de
+Chavannes was one of the most glorious exponents?
+
+
+
+
+THE LANDSCAPE PAINTER
+
+
+There is, in the work of Puvis de Chavannes, so much harmony and
+balance; the place occupied by each figure is so perfectly planned to
+accord the unity of the whole, that one does not perceive at first,
+because of the wise ordering of the assembled parts, how many-sided the
+artist's genius was. And so it happens that the landscape painter in him
+does not appear excepting under analysis. Yet few artists have advanced
+the science of landscape so far; indeed, in all his compositions it
+holds a position, if not of first importance, at least one equal to that
+of his figures. In his eyes it was not a matter of convention, a
+decoration, an accessory, but an indispensable part of the picture, so
+indispensable indeed that, without the landscape the picture would not
+exist. In short, it is in his landscape that Puvis de Chavannes has
+always placed the local colour of his compositions, and not in his
+figures. The latter are generally clad in antique fashion, in order to
+remain representative of humanity in general, but the setting is local:
+his _Ave, Picardia Nutrix_, for instance, shows us the land of Picardy
+with its level plains and its melancholy horizons: similarly, the two
+frescoes in the Palace of Longchamps reproduce faithfully the
+sun-flooded coast of Marseilles and the animation of its quays;--and yet
+the hurrying crowds upon them belong to no definite race nor to any
+determinable epoch.
+
+It is always so in the paintings of Puvis de Chavannes: the landscape
+and the living figures harmonize, fit in, complete each other, and the
+consummate art of the landscape painter yields in no way to that of the
+painter of figures.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE VIII.--WAR
+
+(In the Museum, Amiens)
+
+This work dates from the same period as _Repose_ and _Peace_. It marks
+the début of Puvis de Chavannes in his career as an artist. In spite of
+some reminiscences of his training, his individuality already asserts
+itself, and the originality of composition is unmistakable.]
+
+Puvis de Chavannes has been criticized on the ground that in such of his
+pictures as evoke antiquity, he sacrificed accepted tradition and
+acquired knowledge. From this to a direct charge of ignorance was an
+easy step; and it was quickly taken. That the artist attached a mediocre
+importance to accuracy in decoration or antique costume, there can be no
+question. Truth, in his eyes, consisted less in the detailed
+reconstruction of garments than in the faithful representation of that
+eternally living model, the human soul, over which whole centuries have
+passed, without availing to modify it. All else is merely accessory
+and secondary, if not actually negligible. At the same time, no one was
+ever more truly impregnated with the spirit of antiquity, as he had
+imbibed it from his readings, from his travels and from his own
+meditations. Contrary to what has been thought, he was not proud; nor
+held himself aloof from all other schools of painting except his own.
+Nothing could be further from the truth. Puvis was acquainted with all
+the schools; and no one admired more sincerely than he the great masters
+of each and every country. He had traversed Italy, Germany, and the
+Netherlands, examining, studying, admiring. And here is precisely
+wherein his great glory consists; that having studied all methods,
+analyzed all processes, he still remained true to himself,--in other
+words, that he was a painter of inimitable originality.
+
+Puvis de Chavannes kept abreast of all the ideas that stand for
+personality and progress. Far from being a recluse, solely concerned
+with his own painting, he followed the contemporary literary movement,
+and none of the happenings that took place around him escaped his
+knowledge.
+
+Nevertheless, his chief preoccupation was his art and his desire to
+express, with his brush, the greatest possible degree of human nature.
+This he achieved in his magnificent series of immortal works; but it was
+only at the cost of a vast amount of conscientious labour. Few masters
+have had so keen an intuition of beauty, or a higher and more
+spontaneous inspiration; and no one, perhaps, has been so distrustful of
+himself, of his inspiration, of his intuition. He did not surrender
+himself to them until he had submitted them to the test of searching
+argument and uncompromising common sense. It is due to this careful
+weighing in the balance, to this wise mingling of youthful enthusiasm
+and mature severity that the work of Puvis de Chavannes owes that
+harmonious beauty that insures it an eternal glory.
+
+And so, when in 1898 he passed away, not a dissenting voice was raised
+amid the concert of eulogies and of regrets which marked his end. For a
+long time previous, Puvis de Chavannes had ceased to have detractors;
+admiration had stifled envy. And, from the moment that he crossed beyond
+the threshold of life, Puvis de Chavannes entered fully into
+immortality.
+
+
+
+
+CATALOGUE OF THE WORKS OF PUVIS DE CHAVANNES
+
+
+    Musée du Luxembourg; _The Poor Fisherman_.
+
+    Panthéon; _Saint Genevieve marked with the divine seal_.--_The
+    Piety of Saint Genevieve._--_Saint Genevieve providing for
+    besieged Paris._--_Saint Genevieve watching over sleeping
+    Paris._--Two decorative Friezes, including _Faith, Hope, and
+    Charity_, and a series of _Saints_.
+
+    Hôtel de Ville; _Summer, Winter_.--_Victor Hugo offering his
+    lyre to the city of Paris._
+
+    Amphitheatre of the Sorbonne; _Letters, Sciences and Arts_.
+
+    Museum at Amiens; _Peace_.--_War._--_Labour._--_Repose._--_A
+    Standard-Bearer._--_A Harvester._--_A Woman weeping over the
+    ruins of her house._--_A Woman Spinning._--_Ave, Picardia
+    Nutrix._--_Ludus pro Patria._
+
+    Church at Campagnat; _Ecce Homo_.
+
+    Palace of Longchamps (Marseilles): _Marseilles, a Greek
+    Colony_.--_Marseilles, Gateway of the Orient._
+
+    Museum at Marseilles: _The Return from the Hunt_.
+
+    Hôtel de Ville, Poitiers: _Saint Radegonde gives asylum to the
+    Poets_.--_Charles Martel re-enters Poitiers after his conquest
+    of the Saracens._
+
+    Palace of Fine Arts, Lyons: _The Sacred Wood dear to the Arts
+    and the Muses_.
+
+    Museum at Rouen: _Inter Artes et Naturam_.
+
+    Public Library, Boston: _The inspiring Muses acclaim Genius,
+    Messenger of Light_.
+
+    Museum at Chartres: _Summer_.
+
+    Private Collections: _Herodiade_.--_Autumn._--_Sleep._
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Simple typographical errors were corrected.
+
+Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
+preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Puvis de Chavannes, by Francois Crastre
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41835 ***