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The Sacred Grove, Beloved of the Arts and the Muses

A work made of oil on canvas.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of oil on canvas.

Date:

1884/89

Artist:

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (French, 1824–1898)

About this artwork

The indeterminately mythological figures that populate this peaceful landscape are intended to evoke a poetic conception of the artistic past. The figures in the center personify the three plastic arts: architecture, painting, and sculpture. They are surrounded by the nine muses of Classical antiquity.

The scene’s subdued, chalky colors and overall flatness recall Roman wall paintings. Indeed, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes was the leading muralist in France when he first displayed this painting at the 1884 Salon, a state-sponsored art exhibition; this canvas is itself a smaller version of a mural he made for the stairway of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, France. That work was one of the inspirations for Georges Seurat’s mural-sized painting A Sunday on la Grande Jatte—1884.

Status

On View, Gallery 245

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

Title

The Sacred Grove, Beloved of the Arts and the Muses

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1884–1889

Medium

Oil on canvas

Inscriptions

Inscribed lower left: P. Puvis de Chavannes

Dimensions

93 × 231 cm (36 7/16 × 90 15/16 in.); Framed: 124.5 × 243.8 × 19.1 cm (49 × 96 × 7 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Potter Palmer Collection

Reference Number

1922.445

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/81566/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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