Fantasy
1824–98
Medium
Pen and brown ink on calque, laid down on wove paper
Dimensions
sheet: 11 13/16 x 8 1/16 in. (30 x 20.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of William S. Lieberman, 2005
Accession Number
2007.49.652
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the hushed galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of's Drawings and Prints department, Pierre Puvis de Chav's *Fantasy* (ca. 1824–98) captivates with its dreamlike vision. This intimate pen and brown ink drawing on calque— a translucent tracing paper, later laid down on wove—measures just 11 13/16 x 8 1/16 inches, close contemplation. Rendered during the artist's mature career, it evokes a mythological reverie featuring male nudes and the winged horse Pegasus, symbols of poetic inspiration and heroic ascent drawn from classical antiquity. Puvis de Chavannes, a leading French Symbolist, bridg...
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...