
Wikimedia Commons • Public Domain
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes painted the penitent Magdalene in 1869, showing her before a sparse landscape as an almost abstract figure. Her sensuality appears only in her bare breast framed by long hair. A skull sits beside her, and her gaze remains fixed and distant.
Puvis achieved classical grandeur through simplified forms while Impressionism dominated Paris. His fresco-like technique and poetic approach made him a precursor of Symbolism. He returned to this subject thirty years later in one of his final works. Now at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt.
Other masterpieces from the Symbolism movement

Gustav Klimt, 1912
Neue Galerie, New York

Gustav Klimt, 1909
MAK Vienna, Vienna

Gustav Klimt, 1907
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Gustav Klimt, 1915
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Gustav Klimt, 1908
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Gustav Klimt, 1907
Private Collection, Unknown

Akseli Gallen-Kallela
Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki, Helsinki

Akseli Gallen-Kallela
Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki, Helsinki
Luxury wall art with the same mood and energy. Gallery-quality canvas, no museum crowds.
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