NARRATOR:
A contemporary critic wrote:
YRIARTE (ACTOR):
“M. de Chavannes has perhaps surpassed himself. He appears to have disarmed his critics, triumphed over the unyielding and scoffed at the more frivolous among the worldly, who feel themselves completely moved by this simple epic and his profound sincerity. There is not one unnecessary gesture, not one line which does not have its value, all the “words” have a purpose and the poem is accessible to all. M. de Chavannes has isolated himself in his intellectual aristocracy. Today, after having long been in misery, he is honored, his moment has decidedly arrived.”
The Pastoral Life of Saint Geneviève
1879
Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes (French, 1824-1898)
Not on View
An officially sanctioned and commercially successful artist of the late nineteenth century, Puvis de Chavannes nonetheless inspired admiration among the radical artists of the Nabi generation—particularly Denis, Bonnard, and Vuillard. This triptych revisits at reduced scale an enormous mural he painted between 1874 and 1879 at the Parisian church of Sainte Geneviève (today known as the Panthéon). The scene takes place in fifth-century France; Genevieve, the young girl at the center of the composition, is recognized as the future patron saint of Paris by the bishop Saint Germain of Auxerre. An inscription below tells the story, but the clarity and simplicity of design render this explanation superfluous. Matte as a fresco and bordered, like a tapestry, with leafy garlands, Puvis’s monumental decoration provided inspiration for Vuillard’s large-scale decorative paintings two decades later.
Details
- Artist Name: Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes (French, 1824-1898)
- Title: The Pastoral Life of Saint Geneviève
- Date: 1879
- Medium: Oil on canvas, triptych
- Dimensions: Left (Panel A): 53 x 32 1/4 in. (134.6 x 81.9 cm), Center (Panel B): 53 x 35 1/8 in. (134.6 x 89.2 cm), Right (Panel C): 52 3/4 x 32 1/4 (134 x 81.9 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.1968.49.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
Artist’s studio and estate (Delapalme Inventory).
Catholina Lambert, Patterson (1834-1923), New Jersey (sale, New York, Plaza Hotel, 21-24 February 1916, lot 186, to);
F. von Hellman [for?];
“I. Johns,” (presumably John Quinn)
John Quinn (1870-1924), New York.
Mr. and Mrs. James Byrne, deposited 18 June 1923 with;
[Durand-Ruel, Paris, for sale 14 January 1924 to;]
Art Institute of Chicago, until 1955.
[E. & A. Silberman Galleries, New York].
Huntington Hartford Collection, Gallery of Modern Art, New York; by 1963; sold 30 January 1968 to;
[Hirschl & Adler Galleries Inc., New York; stock no. 5154-A/B/C; offered 15 May 1968 and subsequently sold 10 July 1968 to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Catholina Lambert, Patterson (1834-1923), New Jersey (sale, New York, Plaza Hotel, 21-24 February 1916, lot 186, to);
F. von Hellman [for?];
“I. Johns,” (presumably John Quinn)
John Quinn (1870-1924), New York.
Mr. and Mrs. James Byrne, deposited 18 June 1923 with;
[Durand-Ruel, Paris, for sale 14 January 1924 to;]
Art Institute of Chicago, until 1955.
[E. & A. Silberman Galleries, New York].
Huntington Hartford Collection, Gallery of Modern Art, New York; by 1963; sold 30 January 1968 to;
[Hirschl & Adler Galleries Inc., New York; stock no. 5154-A/B/C; offered 15 May 1968 and subsequently sold 10 July 1968 to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Expositon centennale de l'art français (Exposition Universelle)
- Paris, Palais du Champ de Mars, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, 1889 to 1889
Tableaux, pastels, et dessins par Puvis de Chavannes
- Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, 1887 to 1887
Paintings and Drawings by Puvis de Chavannes
- New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, 1894 to 1894
Religious Painting 15th - 19th Centuries. An Exhibition of European Paintings from American Collections
- Brooklyn Museum, 1956-10-02 to 1956-11-13
The Legacy of David and Ingres to Nineteenth Century Art. A Loan Exhibition Organized by The Mount Holyoke Friends of Art to Honor the Inauguration of the Amy M. Sacker Memorial Lectureship
- South Hadley, Mount Holyoke, Dwight Art Memorial, 1966-10-12 to 1966-11-13
Puvis de Chavannes
- Van Gogh Museum, 1994-02-25 to 1994-05-29
Selections from the Norton Simon, Inc. Museum of Art
- Princeton University Art Museum, 1972-12-03 to 1974-07-17
The Nabis
- Norton Simon Museum, 1992-09-24 to 1993-07-18
Three Centuries of French Art: Selections from The Norton Simon, Inc. Museum of Art and the Norton Simon Foundation_2
- California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1974-10-19 to 1976-06-15
Reinstallation of South Wing
- Norton Simon Museum, 1993-10-07 to 1995-08-13
- Yriarte, C., Gazette des Beaux-Arts, pp. 694-695
- Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 134
- Thompson, Richard, The Burlington Magazine, pp. 476-478
- L. C., Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, pp. 117-120
- Anonymous, Art News, p. 1
- Bulletin of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, pp. 44-46
- Argencourt, L.; and J Foucart, Puvis de Chavannes, under nos. 114, 120 pp. 9, 136, 138-139
- Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to Paintings in the Permanent Collection, 1925, pp. 55-57
- Venturi, Archives, 1939, p. 95
- Michel, André and Jean Laran, Puvis de Chavannes, 1977, pp. 41-44
- Boucher, M. C., Catalogue des dessins peintures de Puvis de Chavannes, 1979, under nos. 74, 77 pp. 64, 66
- Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1981,
- Trudzinski, M., Die Italienische und Französischen Handzeichnungen im Kupferstichkabinett der Landesgalerie, 1987, p. 222
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 173
- Price, Aimée Brown, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, 1994, no. 74 p. 152-154, 155
- Brettell, Richard R. and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, volume 1, 2006,
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 508 p. 305
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