Massilia, Greek Colony by Puvis de Chavannes Postcard

Massilia, Greek Colony by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes is an oil painting in the Renaissance and Neo-Classical tradition of figures in pastoral landscape. Massilia was the ancient Greek port on the coast of France that became the city of Marseille. This oil sketch for a history painting depicts classical figures on a beach landscape against a deep azure Mediterranean Sea, the artist’s square transfer grid lines visible through the paint film. . Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824 – 1898) was a French painter and one of the most widely admired and influential artists during the latter 19th century. Puvis studied briefly under Delacroix and Thomas Couture and at the Académie des Beaux Arts before gaining wide recognition exhibiting in the Paris Salon. His many public and private mural commissions canonised Puvis as the "painter for France", bringing many accolades from across the worlds of art and literature. His work is part of the French Symbolist movement, spanning the period between Romanticism and the rise of Modernism. Though Puvis’ reputation has diminished greatly, the artist influenced countless others including Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, and left an unmistakable impression on the 20th century Modernists such as Matisse and Picasso.