Hope

Description 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 Musée 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 (1848-1903) and Henri Matisse (1869-1954).

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
11/03/1966	Treatment	loss compensation; coated
6/01/1971	Treatment	cleaned
5/01/1974	Treatment	loss compensation; coated; other
12/11/1975	Treatment	repaired; loss compensation
1/13/1997	Treatment	other
6/04/2003	Treatment	repaired
5/09/2008	Examination	examined for loan

Exhibitions

• Manet, Monet, and the Gare Saint-Lazare. National Gallery of Art, Washington. 1998.
• Vive la France! French Treasures from the Middle Ages to Monet. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1999-2000.
• Triumph of French Painting: Masterpieces from Ingres to Matisse. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach; Dayton Art Institute, Dayton; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo. 2000-2002.
• Verso l'arte moderna: da Puvis de Chavannes a Matisse e Picasso. Palazzo Grassi, Venice. 2002.
• A Magnificent Age: Masterpieces from the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte. 2002-2004.
• 19th Century Masterpieces from the Walters Art Museum. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara; Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin. 2010-2011.

Provenance Durand-Ruel, Paris, prior to 1872 Salon, by purchase [from the artist]; Patou, Paris [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Durand-Ruel [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Erwin Davis, New York, 1890, by purchase; E. F. Miliken Sale, New York, February 14, 1902, no. 25; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Date] Lower left: 1872; [Signature] Lower left: P. Purvis de Chavannes

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1902