Compositional study for The Sacred Grove, Beloved of the Arts and the Muses
1883/84
Medium
Black chalk on tan wove tracing paper, laid down on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
Primary support: 19.3 × 26.2 cm (7 5/8 × 10 3/8 in.); Secondary support: 21.2 × 27.8 cm (8 3/8 × 11 in.)
Classification
chalk
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
184601
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This small study—the culmination of many preparatory sketches—is the final schema by Puvis de Chavannes for his highly influential painting The Sacred Grove, Beloved of the Arts and Muses, which is in the Art Institute’s collection.
About the Artist
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes · 1824–1898
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824–1898) was a French painter who became the foremost muralist of nineteenth-century France and a crucial bridge between academic tradition and modernism. Born in Lyon to a prosperous family, he studied briefly with Henri Scheffer and Thomas Couture in Paris and traveled to Italy, where the frescoes of the Italian Renaissance made a lasting impression on his artistic v...