Etude
Medium
report (?) lithograph [photolithograph?] on japan paper
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Virginia and Ira Jackson Collection, gift in memory of Virginia H. Jackson
Accession Number
1996.151.175
Art Historical Context
**Etude** by Pierre Puvis deavannes (1824–1898), created in 1895, is a delicate lithograph—possibly a photolithograph—printed on fine Japan paper. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's Prints department (CG-E) as part of the Virginia and Ira Jackson Collection, this work exemplifies the artist's late-career exploration of printmaking. Japan paper, prized for its smooth texture and absorbency, was favored for high-quality reproductions, lending Puvis's subtle tones and lines exceptional clarity and elegance. Puvis de Chavannes, a leading French Symbolist, was renowned for his mural decoratio...
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...