Hope

In the wake of the catastrophic Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the artist painted this picture of a young woman seated in a devastated landscape holding an oak twig as a symbol of hope for the nation’s recovery from war and deprivation. This painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1872. A smaller variant, showing the subject nude, is at the Mus�e d’Orsay, Paris.

Puvis de Chavannes was one of the most original artists of his generation. His utopian visions, in which the figures seem to float in a dream-like landscape, served as a point of departure for many younger artists, such as Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisse.