Mary Magdalene in the Desert

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.