Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, born Pierre-Cécile Puvis in a suburb of Lyon in 1824, would become one of France's most significant muralists. Though initially intending to follow his father into engineering, a serious illness and a transformative journey to Italy in 1844-45 led him to pursue painting. He briefly studied with Eugène Delacroix, then Henri Scheffer and Thomas Couture, but ultimately preferred to work independently, developing a distinctive style that would be descr…