Death and the Maidens

1872

Puvis's painting shows maidens gathering flowers and frolicking in a meadow. Some seem carefree while others are more contemplative, though none of them seems to have noticed the figure of the Grim Reaper, sleeping in the lower left of the composition. Meditations on mortality like this one were popular at the time. Puvis’s treatment of the subject—with its vertical composition and muted palette—differentiate this painting from other variations on the theme.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	57 5/8 x 46 1/8 in. (146.4 x 117.2 cm) Frame: 69 3/8 x 53 7/8 x 3 in. (176.2 x 136.8 x 7.6 cm)
Object Number	1955.54
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	On View

Image Caption

Pierre Puvis De Chavannes, Death and the Maidens, 1872, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.54

Select Bibliography

Jiminez, Jill Berk. Dictionary of Artists' Models. London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001. LeMoine, Serge, ed. From Puvis de Chavannes to Matisse and Picasso: Toward Modern Art. Milan: Bompiani, 2002. Ruck, Carl A. P. Sacred Mushrooms of the Goddess: Secrets of Eleusis. Berkeley, CA: Ronin Publishing, Inc., 2006. Serge Lemoine (editor). From Puvis de Chavannes to Matisse and Picasso: Toward Modern Art. Milan: RCS Libri Spa. 2002. . The Salon, Paris.. 1872.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four: First Two Rooms. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. Wattenmaker, Richard J. Puvis de Chavannes and the Modern Tradition. Exhibition catalogue. Toronto: Art Galery of Ontario, 1975. Grand Palais, Paris. Exposition Puvis de Chavannes. Nov. 26, 1976-Feb. 14, 1977; National Gallery, Ottawa, March 25-May 8, 1977. Wilton, Andrew, and Robert Upstone, eds. The Age of Rosetti, Burne-Jones and Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910. Exhibition catalogue. London: Tate Gallery Publishing, 1997. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Vojtech Jirat-Wasiutynski.. Gauguin in the Context of Symbolism.. New York: Garland.. 1978.. Delevoy, Robert L. Symbolists and Symbolism. New York: Skira & Rizzoli, 1978. Nakayama, Kimio, and Shouji Takashima. Allegories et symboles II.Nu feminin dans l'art, vol. 8: Tokyo: Zauho Press, 1981. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Minnesota Historical Society, James J. Hill House. Homecoming: The Art Collection of James J. Hill. May 18-Sept. 21, 1991. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Dominique Brachlianoff et al.. The Real and the Spiritual: 19th-Century French Drawings from the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon.. Pittsburgh: The Frick Art Museum, June 13-Aug. 16, 1992; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Sept. 15-Nov. 15, 1992.. Price, Aimée Brown. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh. Feb. 25-May 29, 1994.. Petrie, Brian. Puvis de Chavannes. Aldershot, England and Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1997. Lacambre, Geneviève. Il Simbolismo: Da Moreau a Gauguin a Klimt. Ferrara Palazzo dei Diamanti, February 18- May 20, 2007; Roma Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, June 7- September 16, 2007. Ferrara Arte S.p.A.. 2007. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.

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Provenance

[Durand-Ruel, Paris, by 1873]; Catholina Lambert, Paterson, New Jersey (by 1894); [Scott & Fowles, New York]; [Durand-Ruel, New York, sold to Hill, 1912]; James J. Hill, Saint Paul (1912–possibly until d. 1916);¹ [Knoedler, New York, sold to Clark, 29 Nov. 1918]; Robert Sterling Clark (1918–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. 1. Hill died intestate; his collection of 83 paintings was inherited by his widow and their children and divided among them. Hill’s papers held at the Minnesota Historical Society do not mention this painting among works included in the division of the estate, however, suggesting that he may have sold it prior to his death. See correspondence in the curatorial files.