Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

Very good overall condition. The drawing is more yellow and less red than the reproduction shows. Small hole in the upper left corner.
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Notre dessin est très probablement une réplique d'après l'une des compositions murales peintes par Pierre Puvis de Chavannes pour la salle à manger de son frère, Edouard, à Brouchy en Saône-et-Loire. Par ailleurs, il exécuta un tableau de même sujet qu'il exposa au Salon de 1859. L'oeuvre, également une réplique d'après le décor de la salle à manger de Brouchy est conservée au musée des Beaux Arts de Marseille (voir l'illustration fig.1).
Puvis de Chavannes utilise beaucoup la sanguine entre 1854 et 1870 et, vers 1866 il dessine plusieurs répliques à la sanguine, d'après ses propres oeuvres. Nous pouvons donc supposer que l'oeuvre présentée date de cette période.

Nous remercions Monsieur Bertrand Puvis de Chavannes de nous avoir aimablement confirmé l'authenticité de cette oeuvre et de nous avoir aidé dans la rédaction de cette notice.

Our drawing is very probably a replica of one of the mural compositions painted by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes for his brother Edouard's dining room at Brouchy, in Saône-et-Loire. The artist also made a painting of the same subject which he exhibited at the Salon of 1859, again repeating the composition from the dining room at Brouchy; the painting is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, in Marseille (see fig.1). Between 1854 and 1870 Puvis de Chavannes used red chalk a lot, and around 1866 he drew many replicas in red chalk of his own works. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the present work dates from that period.

We are grateful to Monsieur Bertrand Puvis de Chavannes for having kindly confirmed the attribution, and for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.