St. Genevieve Mural Cycle by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

Shendri’Anna Martines

At times I feel like I should pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming when thinking back on my time in Paris, France: a place full of culture, art, and life. I was presented with the opportunity to bask in the awe that this city gives off every time you turn the corner of a narrow street. On the day of my presentation on the St. Genevieve Mural Cycle by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, our crew caught a bus that pulled up right next to the Pantheon. The grandeur of the Pantheon was surreal as I strode inside its doors. I remember walking past the earlier phases of the cycle that Puvis painted, in particular the one depicting the arrival of St. Germain in Nanterre and the recognition of St. Genevieve as a holy being of God. Upon seeing it in the flesh, I recalled reading about this incident in St. Genevieve’s childhood and how this was a pivotal moment in her journey to becoming who she was meant to be.

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, The Childhood of St. Genevieve, 1893. Oil on canvas. Paris, Pantheon                                  (Photo: Shendri’Anna Martines)

We all made our way through the Pantheon to the last painting of the cycle that Puvis completed. Walking up to St. Genevieve Keeping Watch over Sleeping Paris, I was not fully prepared for the scale with which this work actually existed. The decoration, as Puvis would have called it, shows St. Genevieve standing alone looking over her city of Paris. She dedicated her life to God by praying, fasting, and healing people. It was not until the invasion of Attila and the Huns that St. Genevieve really proved herself as a trustworthy divine being chosen by God. Though this painting is a part of the whole mural cycle of the life of St. Genevieve, I chose to focus on this last work that Pierre Puvis did because it shows the saint standing in solidarity over the city of Paris, as she did all of her life. I felt that this painting really captured the essence of what St. Genevieve stood for to her people of France: a protector, a healer, a saint.

March 22, 2018: Here I am, standing in front of St. Genevieve Keeping Watch Over Sleeping Paris  (Photo: Hayla May) 

            Seeing this work in person communicated Pierre Puvis’s style in a way that allowed my eyes to fixate on the dreamy style that he was able to evoke in his paintings. During Puvis’s lifetime the recognition of the unconscious was new and people’s perspectives were changing. Rather than seeing art merely as an academic enterprise, they were actually enjoying what they were seeing and allowing the art to speak to their inner selves. I felt this when standing in front of the stoic St. Genevieve. Puvis’s colors and matte finish of the paint give off that feeling whenever you’re in between wake and sleep, still trying to cling to the memory of the dream your unconscious was conjuring.  The moon in the high horizon illuminates the city of Paris and St. Genevieve, and even though it is nighttime everything can be seen throughout the work—creating a window into the simultaneous dream that we all got to be a part of.

            This experience gave me the freedom to explore and learn not only about the art I researched, but also myself. Standing up close and personal to the canvas that Puvis worked so diligently on is almost an indescribable feeling. I was able to push myself to think differently about art and experience what Puvis actually intended us to feel. A sense of calm and dreams flow from the painting into your soul. That’s something I’ll keep tucked away in my pocket for a rainy day when I’m feeling nostalgic. 

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, St. Genevieve Keeping Watch Over Sleeping Paris, 1899. Oil on canvas. Paris, Pantheon.     And me (Photo: Samantha Dodd) 

Sources Consulted

L. C., “Studies for the Childhood of St. Genevieve Puvis de Chavannes,” Bulletin of the Art         Institute of Chicago, 18 (1924): 117-120

Mayo, Jane. “Rodin's Monument to Victor Hugo: Art and Politics in the Third Republic,” The Art Bulletin, 68 (1986): 632-656

McNamara, JoAnn et al. Sainted Women of the Dark Ages. Durham and London, 1992

Price, Aimée Brown. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, vol. I: The Artist and his Art. New Haven and London, 2010

_________________. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. New York, 1994

Shaw, Jennifer.  Dream States: Puvis de Chavannes, Modernism, and the Fantasy of France.        New Haven and London, 2002