Pierre Puvis de Chavannes's caricatures, satirical drawings, and grotesques, produced throughout his career (1848–98) are not aberrations, simply indicators of graphic adventurousness, or just readily relished curiosities; they are small manifestoes that bear on the mainstream of his production. Considered with his murals and easel paintings, these private drawings provide an index to the better known works, explaining much about his deliberate choice of themes and general aesthetic, what he painted and what he noted but would not paint. Puvis's early scatological caricatural drawings parody his own paintings, mock the Salon, and initiate his continuing caricatural commentary on style and its uses. Mordant caricatural portraits and self-portraits document his relationships with other artists and friends. No less a bearer of normative messages than his allegories, Puvis's caricatural drawings also dealt with topical events, contemporary character types, and personal psychosexual situations. For Puvis, as f...
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