Pierre Puvis de Chavannes was born into a bourgeois family. His father intended his son to enroll at the École Polytechnique in Paris. After a prolonged illness, however, Puvis instead entered the Faculté de Droit. He became interested in art during a trip to Italy in 1846, and the following year he began studying with Henri Scheffer (1798-1862). Puvis returned to Italy in 1848 with Louis Bauderon de Vermeron (1809-1870), where he became interested in the art of mural painting. He entered the atelier of Delacroix (q.v.) for only two weeks, and later that of Couture (q.v.) for three months. Yet, Puvis's chief method of study was to work independently after live models. He was accepted in the Salon of 1850, but his submissions from 1852 through 1859 were rejected. In 1854-55 he decorated the dining room at his brother's country house, Le Brouchy, near Cuiseaux. He won a second-class medal at the Salon of 1861 for Concordia (Musée de Picardie, Amiens), which was purchased by the state. Inspired by the frescoes of Pompeii and by Piero della Francesca's Legend of the True Cross in Arezzo, Puvis pursued his interest in mural painting with great success. He received commissions to create works for the Palais des Arts in Lyons, the Pantheon and the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, the Boston Public Library, and many others. The artist strove to integrate his mural paintings with the surrounding architecture and to maintain the integrity of the flat wall surface by using broad areas of subdued color. In 1890, together with Meissonier (q.v.) and Rodin (1840-1917), Puvis founded the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, as a more progressive alternative for the regular Salon. Puvis's art had a significant impact on later artists, particularly the symbolists.
