Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre Cécile (1824–1898)

French painter, one of the major figures of Symbolism. His major works are vast decorative schemes in pale colours, mainly on mythological and allegorical subjects, for public buildings such as the Panthéon and Hôtel de Ville in Paris. His Poor Fisherman (1881; Louvre, Paris) is his best-known smaller work.

He sought to recreat the monumentality of early Italian frescoes with his poetic, allegorical decorations in flat areas of pale colours in subtle harmonies. Rejecting both the subjects and the style of the prevailing realism of his day, he created calm, Arcadian idylls. He developed an entirely new style of wall painting technically, oil paint on canvas which was cemented to the wall.

The Boston Public Library, Massachusetts, owns several of his murals.