Christian Inspiration

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

1883–1886 · Pastel over watercolor, gouache, on cream-colored paper · Drawings and Prints

Combining watercolor and pastel, this work lays out the composition for one of three major murals Puvis designed for the staircase of the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Lyon. To treat the subject of Christianity as a source of inspiration for making art, Puvis shows a "Fra Angelico-type" working to complete a mural while younger artists look on. He dedicated the sheet to one of his own students, Paul Baudoüin, who became a leading practitioner of fresco in late nineteenth-century France.

Artist

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

Date

1883–1886

Medium

Pastel over watercolor, gouache, on cream-colored paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1965