BIOGRAPHY

1824

14th December: Pierre Puvis de Chavannes born at 13 rue des Deux Angles, Lyon.
Son of Marie-Julien-César-Joseph Puvis de Chavannes, a mining chief-ingeneer, and Marguerite Guyot de Pravieux.
The Puvis family was originaly Burgudian. Pierre was the youngest of four: two sons and two daughters.

1840

Death of Puvis’ mother.




Le Revermont, au sud de la Bourgogne. Paysage bien connu du peintre.

1841-1842

Prepared Rhethoric and Philosophy at the Lycée Henri IV, Paris.

1843

Death of Puvis’ father.
The older Puvis had hoped his son would go to the Ecole Polytechnique, but illness prevented this.

1846

First trip in Italy. Upon return, recommended to Henri Scheffer who accepted to give advice.

1847

Summer at Mâcon where several times he meets the poet Lamartine.

1848

Second trip to Italy. He went to Rome, Venice, Naples, most of Italy.
He saw the Piero della Francescas at Arrezo, and the bolognese masters.
At year-end, enters Delacroix’s studio: he stays only about two weeks.
Enters Couture’s studio, where he stays three months.

1850

Makes a first appearance at the Salon des Artistes Français, with Dead Christ.
Paints Negro Boy, The Reading Lesson, and Portrait of a Man (Private collections).



Negro Boy. France, private collection.

1851

Paints Diogène, Head of a Woman, Portrait of Edouard Puvis de Chavannes (his brother), Portrait of Miss de Vaugelas, Portrait of Marc-Antoine Puvis de Chavannes (private collections), Portrait of a Woman, Portrait of Thomas-Alfred Jones (Orsay Museum).

1852

Submitted Jean Cavalier playing the Luther Chorale for his dying noter, (Lyon, Fine Arts Museum), which is refused.
From 1852 to 1859, he made annual submission to the Salon, all of which were refused.
15th July : moves into 11 place Pigalle. He would stay there until 1897 when he married Marie Cantacuzène.




Atelier de PPC au 11 place Pigalle

1854-55

Decorative paintings for the dining room of his brother’s castle.

1856

Meets Marie Cantacuzène through Chassériau.
Painted The Fisherman, Christ Appearing to saint Paul in jail ( Bourbon-Lancy ) and Salome ordering the execution of John the Baptist (Rotterdam).

1857

Painted Self-Portrait (Paris, Petit Palais), The Village Firemen (Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersbourg), The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastien, Augustus’s daughter Julia returning to the palace (private collections), and Meditation (lost).

1858

Portrait of Alphonse Puvis de Chavannes, and Christ before the Praetorial Court (Private collection).

1861

Exhibits, at the Salon: Concordia, Bellum (Amiens, Musée de Picardie).
Wins second class medal.
The french governement buys Concordia.



Concordia

1862

Etches The Martyrdom of Saint Sébastien (Private collection) and Return from the Hunt (Marseilles’ Museum).

1863

Exhibits at the Salon Work and Repose (Amiens, Picardie Museum).

1864

Exhibits at the Salon Autumn (Lyon, Fine Arts Museum).

1865

Exhibits at the Salon Ave Picardia Nutrix and others compositions for the Museum of Amiens.

1865

Exhibits at the Salon Vigilance (Orsay Museum), Fantasy (Ohara Museum, Kurashiki).

1867

Exhibits, at the Universal Exhibition: War, Peace, Work and Repose, replicas of the paintings at Amiens (USA).
Salon: Sleep (Lille, Fine Arts Museum).
Named Knight of the Legion of Honour.
Paints Vigilance (Orsay Museum).

1868

Salon: Gambling(lost).
Acquires a new studio at Neuilly.

1869

Salon: Massilia, greek colony, and Marseille, Gateway of the Orient (Marseille, Palais Longchamp) .

1870

Salon: The Beheading of John the Baptist (Birmimgham, Barber Institute), and The Magdelene in the Desert (Franckfort, Staeldelshes Kunstinstitute).
Serves in National Guard with the artistes Manet, Tissot, Bracquemont and Carolus-Durand.
Paints The Ballon (Orsay Museum).

1871

March: Takes refuge at Versailles with his sister and brother-in-law, A.E. Jordan, deputy in the National Assembly.
Paints The Carrier Pigeon (Orsay Museum), Autumn.

1872

Salon: Hope, Death and the Maidens (Williamstown, S and F. Clark Art Institute) was refused.
Paints a second version of Hope.




Hope. 1872. Paris, Orsay Museum

1873

Salon: Summer.

1874

Salon: Charles over the Saracens, done for the décor at Poitiers City Hall and, in the drawings and cartoons section, Radegonde in the Convent of Sainte-Croix.

1875

Salon: Radegonde in the Convent of Sainte-Croixand Family of Fishermen.

1876

Salon: Saint Genevieve as a Child at Prayer, commissioned by the Ministry of Public Education and Fine Arts for the Church of Saint Genevieve, and, in the drawings and cartoons section, Saint Genevieve, a three-part cartoon, for a work commissioned for the Panthéon.

1877

Officer of the Legion of Honour.

1878

Frieze is set in place in the Panthéon.

1879

Member of the Salon admissions and awards jury.
Exhibits: The Prodigal Son and Young Girls by the Sea.




Young Girls by the Sea. 1879. Paris, Orsay Museum.

1880

Member of the Salon jury.
Exhibits: Young Picardians Practising the Spear Throw, cartoon for the painting which, under the title Pro Patria Ludus, would be part of the décor for the Amiens museum.
Commissioned to do Pro Patria Ludus.
Suzanne Valadon begins to pose for him.

1880-82

Paints Ludus pro Patria(Amiens' Museum), Doux Pays for his friend Léon Bonnat, Portrait of Eugène Bénon.
Exhibits The poor Fisherman.




The poor Fisherman. 1881. Paris, Orsay Museum.

1883

Paints Le Rêve (Orsay Museum), Orphée (France, private collection), Femme à sa Toilette (Orsay Museum), Portrait of Mrs Cantacuzène.

1884-86

Paints Le Bois Sacré, Vision Antique, L'inspiration Chrétienne, Le Rhône et La Saône, all compositions for the Lyon's Museum.




Vision Antique. 1885. Lyon, Musée de Beaux-Arts

1885-87

Paint's Tamaris, Le Berger, a self-portrait.

1887

Exhibits thirteen paintings at The National Academy of Design, New York.
One-man exhibition at Durand-Ruel, Paris
Paints Family of Fishermen, a Self-Portrait and Madwoman by the Sea.




Madwoman by the Sea. c. 1887. St Petersburg, Ermitage Museum

1888

Member of the jury for the Salon des Artistes Français.
Castagnary buys The poor Fisherman for the Louvre.
Paints The Spinner.




Besnard, Roll, Gervex, Braquemont, G. Petit, R. Ballu, Armand, Dayot, Carolus-Durand, C. Jacobson, A. Proust, Magne
Ch. Garnier, Vve Klein, L. Gérome, Fusen
Cazin, Cormon, Lish, L. Bonnat, Roty, Pasteur, Puvis de Chavannes, Falguières, Barrias, Chaplin
Goutherin
Chapu
X, P. Dubois
Berlin. Le Comité d'exposition des Beaux-Arts.
Copenhague - 1888. Cliché Gesellshaft.

1889

Paints Inter Artes et Naturam. Member of the jury for the Salon des Artistes Français.
Member of the jury for the Exposition Centennale de l'Art Français.
Exhibits there : Autumn, The Beheading of John the Baptist, The Prodigal Son and Young Girls by the Sea.
7 August: official unveiling of La Sorbonne. Commander of the Legion of Honour.

1890

With Meissonier and Rodin founds the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and is named vice-chairman.

1891

Named chairman of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, replacing Meissonier.





Summer. 1891. Cleveland, Museum of Art

1893

Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts : Victor Hugo's Homage to Paris in monochrome.
Paints Normandy and The Goatherd.

1894

Exhibits, at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts : The decorative Ensemble Intended for the Prefectural Stairwell of Paris City Hall.
15 February-15 March: takes part in the first Salon of "La Libre Esthétique" (Brussels) with The Prodigal Son and Orpheus.
November: exhibits six paintings at Durand-Ruel, Paris.
15-31 December: one-man exhibition of 23 paintings in New York, organized by Durand-Ruel.

1895

15 January: banquet at the Hôtel Continental to celebrate Puvis's seventieth birthday.
Member of the founding committee for the Venice Biennale. Exhibits there his dead Christ (1850).
Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts: Pannel Intended for the Stairwell of the Boston Public Library.

1896

Salon: Virgil, Aeschylus, Homer, History and Astronomy (Boston Public Library).
September: exhibits, at Durand-Ruel, Paris : Chemistry, Philosophy and Physics (Boston Public Library).
Falls ill and is cared for by Marie Cantacuzène.
Paints In the Heather (Art Institute of Chicago, Winter (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia), and The Poet.

1897

Exhibits, at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the cartoons for the second stage of the Panthéon décor.
Junes: moves into 89, avenue de Villiers, to be with Marie Cantacuzène, whom he marries 21 July.
August: injured by an automobile.
Member of the administrative council of the Société des Amis du Louvre.

Paints the Magdalen.




Marie Cantacuzène, charcoal, 1896, Collection particulière

1898

January: in another accident.
Exhibits, at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Pannel Intended for the Panthéon: Saint Genevieve Keeping Watch over Sleeping Paris.
29 August: Marie Cantacuzène dies.
24 October: Puvis dies.
27 October: after a religious ceremony at Saint-François de Sales, Puvis is burried at Neuilly Cemetery.




Magdalen, c. 1896, Budapest, Szépmuvészeti Muzeum

OBJECT

The object of the Pierre Puvis de Chavannes Committee is to watch over the respect of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes person and work.



 LEGAL STATUS

This Committee is a legal association, abiding by the 1901 French Law, which was declared to the Paris Prefecture on April, 17th 2002.



 COMPOSITION

More than 60 descendants of Edouard, Marie-Antoinette and Joséphine Puvis de Chavannes, brothers and sisters of the artist, are members of this Committee. They are all entitled beneficiaries of the author's rights.

The President, the Secretatry and the Treasurer represent each one of the three Pierre Puvis de Chavannes'lines of descendants and heirs. Some historians and researches are also members of the Committee.



 LEGAL BASIS

The author's heirs'moral rights are defined by Articles L.121-1, L.121-2 and L.121-3 of the French Intellectual Property Code. Continuators of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes'person, his heirs watch over the respect of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes'moral rights : respect of his name, his authorship and his works. They also benefit from his right of disclosure.



 DURATION AND SCOPE

By virtue of art. L.121-1 of the French Intellectual Property Code, the moral rights, transmittable to the author's heirs are "everlasting, untransferable and imprescriptible". The moral rights do not end with the economic rights. They are successively transmitted to the author's heirs with no time limit.

In accordance with the international conventions, and notably the Berne Convention, the author's heirs benefit from the author's rights not only in France, but also in the entire world.



 COMPETENCY

The moral rights enable Pierre Puvis de Chavannes'heirs to act in three specific areas:

• respect of the authorship and of the author's name : the author has the right to be recognised as the creator of a work and to have his name mentioned each time his work is exhibited or reproduced.
  
  
• right of disclosure : the moral rights beneficiaries have the right to control the disclosure of each posthumous work of the artist. Therefore, the Committee is entitled to oppose to the disclosure of thesis, or any kind of work, reproducing Pierre Puvis de Chavannes'non-disclosed works, that is to say works which were not exhibited or reproduced during the author's life or which were exposed or reproduced without his consent.
  An agreement given by the author during his life must be interpreted strictly and limited to the specific use it was given for.
  Moreover, the Committee will control that the works for which Pierre Puvis de Chavannes used his right to reconsider or retract during his life are not reproduced.
  
  
• respect of the works: the Committee will control Pierre Puvis de Chavannes'works are not denatured, namely that the physical integrity and "spirit" of the artist's works are respected. In addition, the works exploitation shall not adversely affect Pierre Puvis de Chavannes'reputation.

The name and likeness of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes are patrimonial elements pertaining to the monopoly of the Pierre Puvis de Chavannes Committee. Third parties wishing to use them are under the obligation to submit a request to the Pierre Puvis de Chavannes Committee.

Consequently, the approval of the Committee (characterised by the granting of a "Ready for Print") is recommended prior to each reproduction of a Pierre Puvis de Chavannes'work.

The infringement of the author's moral rights is regarded as counterfeiting.



 AUTHENTIFICATION OF WORKS

The Committee is entitled to issue authentication certificates of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes'works.



 LINKS

• PARIS

Orsay Museum, Paris	Hôtel de Ville, Paris
Panthéon, Paris	Petit Palais, Paris
Sorbonne, Paris

• FRANCE

Picardie Museum, Amiens (french)	Bonnat Museum, Bayonne (french)
Museum of Fine Arts, Lille (french)	Museum of Fine Arts , Lyon
Ursulines Museum, Macon (french)	Museum of Fine Arts, Marseille (french)
Sainte-Croix Museum, Poitiers (french)	Museum of Fine Arts, Rouen (french)

• WORLDWIDE

The Boston Public Library, Boston	Szepmuveszeti Muzeum, Budapest
Art Institute, Chicago	Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki
The National Gallery, London	The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
Museum of Art, Philadephia	National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo	Art Gallery, Toronto
Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg	National Gallery of Art, Washington
Phillips Collection, Washington	Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown
Stiftung Sammlung, Zurich

 CONTACT

For any information, researches, please contact us : comiteppc(at)hotmail.fr

Catalogue raisonné de Pierre Puvis de Chavannes : see Pierre Puvis de Chavannes Committee