Study for 'Doux Pays'

Among the first sketches for the monumental picture exhibited at the Salon of 1882 and titled ‘Doux pays’, this large landscape with women and children playing and relaxing is a poetic evocation of the mythical Golden Age. The painting was made for the painter Léon Bonnat’s residence in the rue Bassano in Paris, and is today at the Musée Bonnat-Helleu, Bayonne (inv. 1087). At the same Salon, Bonnat presented a portrait of his friend Puvis.
The artist prepared his work in numerous squared studies of isolated figures, executed in black or red chalk, as well as in four other studies of the entire composition (Brown Price, op. cit., p. 251, under no. 276). A smaller painted version, identical to the work for Bonna, and considered an autograph replica, is at the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (inv. 1958.64; fig.; see A. Brown Price, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, exhib. cat., Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, 1994, no. 86, ill.). In contrast to the present watercolor, the final composition is simplified, and each figure is given more space. Most of them are placed toward the left of the scene, leaving open the view on the right-hand side to more strongly suggest an impression of peacefulness. Puvis’ composition would influence Paul Seurat when he was working on his Bathers at Asnières at the National Gallery, London.

Fig. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, ‘Doux pays’, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven