Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre (-Cécile)

(born Dec. 14, 1824, Lyon, France—died Oct. 24, 1898, Paris) French painter. He studied briefly with Eug in Paris and exhibited regularly at the Paris Salons. He is best known for his large canvas paintings for the walls of public buildings in Paris, including the Pantheon (1874–78, 1893–98), the Sorbonne (1889–91), and the Hôtel de Ville (1891–94), as well as the museum in Amiens (1880–82). He also decorated the staircase of the Boston Public Library (1895–96). His works are usually idealized depictions of antiquity or allegorical representations of abstract themes, in simplified forms and pale, flat, frescolike colours. The leading French mural painter of the later 19th century, he exerted a strong influence on the Post-Impressionists.

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