In a grove overlooking the Seine River, people paint ceramics and excavate architectural fragments while art students look on at the right. This tribute to creative endeavor is a small-scale copy of the central panel of a triptych that Puvis painted for the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen. His comrade, the sculptor Auguste Rodin, praised the "sweet serenity" of scenes like this one, "sublime landscapes in which sacred nature nurtures a loving, wise, dignified, and pure humanity."
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Title:Inter artes et naturam (Between Art and Nature)
Artist:Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (French, Lyons 1824–1898 Paris)
Date:ca. 1890–95
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:15 7/8 x 44 3/4 in. (40.3 x 113.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Mrs. Harry Payne Bingham, 1958
Object Number:58.15.2
Inscription: Signed (lower right): P.Puvis de Chavannes
[Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1895; stock no. 3389; bought from the artist on August 14, for Fr 12,000; sold in October to Durand-Ruel, New York]; [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1895–99; stock no. 1440; sold on February 6, 1899 to Payne]; Colonel Oliver H. Payne, New York (1899–d. 1917); his nephew, Harry Payne Bingham, New York (1917–d. 1955); his widow, Mrs. Harry Payne Bingham, New York (1955–58)
Pittsburgh. Carnegie Institute. "Third Annual Exhibition," November 3, 1898–January 1, 1899, no. 210 (as "Inter Artes et Naturam").
London. Hayward Gallery. "French Symbolist Painters: Moreau, Puvis de Chavannes, Redon and their Followers," June 7–July 23, 1972, no. 224.
Liverpool. Walker Art Gallery. "French Symbolist Painters: Moreau, Puvis de Chavannes, Redon and their Followers," August 9–September 17, 1972, no. 224.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Van Gogh as Critic and Self-Critic," October 30, 1973–January 6, 1974, no. 44.
Toronto. Art Gallery of Ontario. "Puvis de Chavannes and the Modern Tradition," October 24–November 30, 1975, no. 30.
Amsterdam. Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh. "Franse meesters uit het Metropolitan Museum of Art: Realisten en Impressionisten," March 15–May 31, 1987, no. 28.
Amsterdam. Van Gogh Museum. "Pierre Puvis de Chavannes," February 25–May 29, 1994, no. 130.
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. "Lost Paradise: Symbolist Europe," June 8–October 15, 1995, no. 332.
Venice. Palazzo Grassi. "From Puvis de Chavannes to Matisse and Picasso: Toward Modern Art," February 10–June 16, 2002, no. 20.
Amsterdam. Van Gogh Museum. "Vincent's Choice: Van Gogh's Musée Imaginaire," February 14–June 15, 2003, unnumbered cat. (pl. 94).
LOAN OF THIS WORK IS RESTRICTED.
"Recent Loans." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 16 (February 1921), p. 41, mentions that this picture has been lent to the MMA by Harry Payne Bingham.
Camille Mauclair. Puvis de Chavannes. Paris, 1928, p. 162, lists it as in the MMA's collection and calls it a sketch.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, XIX Century. New York, 1966, p. 230, ill., state that it may be a preparatory study for the Rouen picture; identify the setting as the hillside of Bonsecours, a suburb of Rouen.
Mary Anne Stevens and Alan Bowness inFrench Symbolist Painters: Moreau, Puvis de Chavannes, Redon and their Followers. Ed. Alan Bowness. Exh. cat., Hayward Gallery. London, 1972, p. 111, no. 224, ill., date it about 1890–95 and call it a reduced version of the Rouen painting.
Charles S. Moffett. Van Gogh as Critic and Self-Critic. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1973, unpaginated, no. 44, as "Inter Artes et Naturam (Between Art and Nature)".
Richard J. Wattenmaker. Puvis de Chavannes and the Modern Tradition. Exh. cat., Art Gallery of Ontario. Toronto, 1975, pp. 23–24, 78–79, no. 30, ill. (color), calls it probably a reduction after the finished mural and dates it 1890; cites the influence of this picture on Picasso, Redon, and Van Gogh; comments that the central motif of a mother and child picking fruit probably inspired Pissarro, Morisot, Cassatt, and Denis.
Louise d'Argencourt inPuvis de Chavannes, 1824–1898. Exh. cat., Grand Palais, Paris. Ottawa, 1977, pp. 209–10, under no. 190 [French ed., Paris, 1976, pp. 211–12, under no. 190], calls it a replica of the Rouen picture and dates it 1889.
Sjraar van Heutgen et al. inFranse meesters uit het Metropolitan Museum of Art: Realisten en Impressionisten. Exh. cat., Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1987, pp. 17, 82–83, no. 28, fig. 7 and ill. (color).
Charles F. Stuckey in Charles F. Stuckey and William P. Scott. Berthe Morisot, Impressionist. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1987, p. 138, fig. 82, states that Puvis's Rouen mural decorations were inspired by Botticelli's "Primavera" (Uffizi Gallery, Florence).
Aimée Brown Price. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. Exh. cat., Van Gogh Museum. Amsterdam, 1994, pp. 213–17, no. 130, ill. (color), calls it a reduced version painted after the completion of the Rouen mural and dates it about 1890–95; comments that the complexity of the composition is more evident in our picture than in the Rouen painting and observes that "the Rouen commission is almost unique among the murals for the introduction of contemporaneity through the figures' clothing".
Guy Cogeval inLost Paradise: Symbolist Europe. Exh. cat., Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Montreal, 1995, pp. 467, 520, no. 332, colorpl. 516, dates it 1890; remarks that Puvis "seems to have wanted to reexamine the question of the links between art and nature, rather than subscribing to Wilde's teasing adage 'Nature imitates Art'"; quotes Van Gogh's praise of the painting.
Constance Naubert-Riser inLost Paradise: Symbolist Europe. Exh. cat., Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Montreal, 1995, p. 459.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 435, ill., as "Inter artes et naturam (Between Art and Nature)".
Margaret Werth. The Joy of Life: The Idyllic in French Art, circa 1900. Berkeley, 2002, pp. 21, 36, 128, 246 n. 53, fig. 7, dates it about 1890–95.
Vincent van Gogh. Vincent van Gogh—The Letters. Ed. Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten, and Nienke Bakker. London, 2009, vol. 5, p. 252, fig. 8 (color), under letter no. 879, p. 277, fig. 2 (color), under letter no. 893, p. 321, fig. 9 (color), under letter no. RM21, reproduce this work, although Van Gogh actually refers to the version now in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Rouen.
Aimée Brown Price. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. Vol. 2, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Painted Work. New Haven, 2010, pp. 327–28, no. 344, ill., dates it about 1890–95.
Wouter van der Veen and Peter Knapp. Van Gogh in Auvers: His Last Days. New York, 2010, p. 296, fig. 107 (color, as "Between Art and Nature") [French ed., "Van Gogh à Auvers," Paris, 2009], incorrectly imply that it was the version exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale in 1890 instead of the Rouen picture.
Louis van Tilborgh and Evert van Uitert inBecoming van Gogh. Ed. Timothy J. Standring and Louis van Tilborgh. Exh. cat., Denver Art Museum. Denver, 2012, p. 23, fig. 4 (color).
Nienke Bakker and Maite van Dijk. "Van Gogh in 'The Country of Paintings': An Overview of his Visits to Museums and Exhibitions." Van Gogh's Studio Practice. Ed. Marije Vellekoop et al. Brussels, 2013, pp. 75–76, fig. 24 (color), incorrectly identify it as the version exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale in 1890 instead of the Rouen picture and note Van Gogh's admiration for Puvis's composition.
Marije Vellekoop inVan Gogh at Work. Exh. cat., Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Brussels, 2013, p. 211, fig. 285 (color), misidentifies it as the version exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale in 1890 instead of the Rouen picture.
Richard Kendall inVan Gogh and Nature. Exh. cat., Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 2015, p. 223, fig. 190 (color).
Laura Prins inVan Gogh: Into the Undergrowth. Exh. cat., Cincinnati Art Museum. Cincinnati, 2016, pp. 18, 21 n. 17, fig. 4 (color).
Benjamin Foudral inLéon Frederic: Un autre réalisme. Exh. cat., Musée Gustave Courbet. Ornans, 2018, p. 75, fig. 2 (color).
There is a preparatory oil sketch for the Rouen mural (Price no. 343) in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (Price no. 342).
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (French, Lyons 1824–1898 Paris)
1883–85
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