Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

Symbolist painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898) was the leading French muralist of the later 19th century. Born to a mining engineer from an old noble family of Burgundy, he intended to follow his father's profession until illness led him to Italy, where he discovered his calling. He studied briefly under Delacroix and later Thomas Couture, though he preferred working alone. His distinctive style featured simplified forms, rhythmic line, and pale, flat coloring reminiscent of frescoes.

Puvis decorated major public buildings across France, including the Panthéon, Sorbonne, and Hôtel de Ville in Paris, plus the Boston Public Library in America. His works invoke a timeless, pre-industrial past with classically-inspired allegorical themes. Though largely independent of major artistic currents, he was admired by a remarkably diverse group: Seurat, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh, Matisse, and Picasso all recognized him as a visionary. He co-founded and became president of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. His works hang at the Musée d'Orsay, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and National Gallery in London.