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A small girl kneels in prayer before a tree in a field, while three other figures look on

At left, in the middle distance a small girl with pale skin and long blonde hair wears a long white dress. She kneels facing left, in a grassy field dotted with sheep, looking up at a small cross tied to a slender tree. In the foreground at center, a man with light skin and curly brown hair, wears a loincloth and stands facing away from us. Next to him, at right, a light skinned woman with blonde hair holds a small child in her arm, looking on with the man at the small girl. Across the field, another figure looks on, standing behind a tree at top center, next to a pair of oxen hitched to a plow.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1942.188
People
Pierre Henri Puvis de Chavannes, French (Lyon 1824 - 1898 Paris)
Title
Saint Genevieve as a Child at Prayer
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Study for Saint Genevieve at Prayer / Reduced replica of "Saint Genevieve as a Child at Prayer"
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1879
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230410

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
134.3 x 76.2 cm (52 7/8 x 30 in.)
framed: 138.5 x 80.3 cm (54 1/2 x 31 5/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.l.: P. Puvis/deCh.
  • inscription: below image, oil paint: DES SON AGE LE PLVS TENDRE, SAINTE GENEVIEVE/DONNA, LES MARQVES D'VNE PIETE ARDENTE/SANS CESSE EN PRIERE, ELLE FRAPPAIT DE SVRPRISE/ET D'ADMIRATION TOVS CEVX QVI LA VOYAIENT.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Durand-Ruel, New York]. Hannah Edwards, Boston, 1924. Unidentified collector or dealer, sold [through Martin Birnbaum]; to Grenville Lindall Winthrop, New York, 1941, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1942

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Grenville L. Winthrop, Class of 1886
Accession Year
1942
Object Number
1942.188
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Roger Ballu, "Les Peintures de M. Puvis de Chavannes au Panthéon", La Chronique des Arts et de la Curiosité (June 9, 1877), no. 22, p. 212, p. 212
  • Charles-Phillippe, Marquis de Chennevières-Pointel, "Souvenirs d'un directeur des beaux-arts: Les décorations du Panthéon", L'Artiste (October 1884), pp. 180-204, pp. 257-276
  • Gustave Geffroy, La Vie Artistique (Paris, France, 1892-1903), vol. 5, p. 10
  • Marius Vachon, Puvis de Chavannes (Paris, 1895), pp. 107-120
  • Germain Bazin, "Puvis de Chavannes et l'action morale", Bulletin de l'union pour l'action morale (December 1 1896), pp. 28-29, pp. 28-29
  • Paul Desjardins, "Pierre Puvis de Chavannes", Bulletin de l'union pour l'action morale (November 15, 1898), pp. 68-72, pp. 68-72
  • Pierre Henri Puvis de Chavannes, "Pensées et réflexions, extraites des lettres de Puvis de Chavannes", La Revue Encyclopédique (December 23, 1899), pp. 1080-1082, pp. 1080-1082
  • Marius Vachon, Puvis de Chavannes, un maître de ce temps (Paris, France, 1900), pp. 185-197
  • Pierre Henri Puvis de Chavannes, "Lettres de Puvis de Chavannes", La Revue de Paris (December 15, 1910), 10, pp. 673-692, pp. 688-692
  • "Loan of Paintings by Puvis de Chavannes", Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (June 1916), 11, pp. 134-135, p. 134
  • Antonin Gilbert Sertillanges, Sainte Geneviève (Paris, 1917), pp. 10-15
  • "Studies for the Childhood of St. Geneviève, Puvis de Chavannes", Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (January 1924), 18, pp. 117-120, pp. 117-120
  • French Art of the Nineteenth Century, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1942), listed p. 11
  • Aimée Brown Price, "Puvis de Chavannes: A Study of the Easel Paintings and a Catalogue of the Painted Work" (1972), pp. 430-457, 460-468
  • Richard J. Wattenmaker, Puvis de Chavannes and the Modern Tradition, exh. cat., Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Ontario, 1976), pp. 162-177
  • Louise d'Argencourt, Puvis de Chavannes, exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, Canada, 1977), pp. 132-139
  • Marie-Christine Boucher, Catalogue des dessins et peintures de Puvis de Chavannes, exh. cat., Musée du Petit Palais (Paris, France, 1979), p. 64
  • Barry Bergdoll, "Le Panthéon. Sainte Geneviève au XIXe siècle.", Le Panthéon: Symbole des révolutions (1989), pp. 229-230, pp. 229-230
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 80, color plate; pp. 126, 247, repr. b/w cat. no. 352
  • Ronald de Leeuw, "De Heilige Genevieve als Kind in Gebed", Vereniging Rembrandt (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Summer 1993), no. 2, p. 28
  • Ronald de Leeuw, "Pierre Puvis de Chavannes: Two recent acquisitions", Van Gogh Bulletin, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1993), p. 18
  • Frans von Burkom, "Puvis de Chavannes Ste. Geneviève als kind, ingebed", Jong Holland (1993), 14, no. 4, pp. 15-19, pp. 15-19
  • One Hundred Saints, A Bulfinch Press Book, Little, Brown and Co. (Boston, MA and New York, NY, 1993), repr. in color, p. 133
  • Marie-Christine Boucher, Les Dessins de Puvis de Chavannes du Musée de Picardie, exh. cat. (Amiens, France, 1994), pp. 48-49
  • Aimée Brown Price, Pierre Puvis de Chavanne, exh. cat., Rizzoli (New York, NY, 1994), pp. 18, 26, 147-149, repr.
  • Jean-David Jumeau-Lafond, "L'Enfance de Sainte-Geneviève: Une affiche de Puvis de Chavannes au service de 'l'Union pour l'action morale'", La Revue de l'art (1995), pp. 63-74, pp. 63-68, 71
  • Aimée Brown Price, "Pierre Puvis de Chavannes: Saint Genevieve as a Child in Prayer", Van Gogh Museum Journal (1995), pp. 118-133, pp. 118-121, 124-133
  • Sarah Carr-Gomm, The Secret Language of Art, Duncan Baird Publishers (London, England, 2001), p. 172, detail repr.
  • Chikashi Kitazaki and Mina Oya, ed., Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, exh. cat., National Museum of Western Art (Ueno, 2002), pp. 88-89, cat. #11, color repr.
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), no. 107, pp. 267-270, repr. in color
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), no. 107, pp. 278-279, repr. in color

Exhibition History

  • Exposition de tableaux, pastels, dessins [par M. Puvis de Chavannes], Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 01/01/1887 - 10/31/1887; Durand-Ruel Gallery, New York, 11/01/1887 - 12/31/1887
  • French Art of the Nineteenth Century, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 07/01/1942 - 08/31/1942
  • Sublimations: Art and Sensuality in the 19th Century, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/13/1996 - 07/21/2002
  • Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 09/14/2002 - 12/08/2002
  • A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu