CENTENAIRE DE LA LITHOGRAPHIE

Poster for an exhibit celebrating the centennial of lithography: in this allegorical scene, the austere female figure represents the printing industry, while the little cherub symbolises the industrious lithographer. Largely independent of the major artistic currents of his time, Puvis de Chavannes was much admired by a diverse group of artists and critics (including Paul Gauguin and Charles Baudelaire) for his symbolical, classicist style, characterised by simplified forms and pale, flat, fresco-like colouring. Among his major commissions are a series of panels in the Panthéon and the majestic masterpiece “Le Bois Sacré”, which towers above the podium of the Grand Amphithéâtre of the Sorbonne (Paris).