The Sacred Grove, 1884

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French, 1864–1901

Oil on canvas
The Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum
photo: Bruce M. White

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Toulouse-Lautrec and his fellow art students at Fernand Cormon’s studio made this work as an inside joke. It is a send-up of Symbolist artist Puvis de Chavannes’s The Sacred Grove, Beloved of the Arts and Muses.

Click here to learn more about the details of Toulouse-Lautrec’s parody.

In Cormon's Atelier, ca. 1885

Pierre Cécile Puvis de Vhavannes, French, 1824-1898. The Sacred Grove, Beloved of the Arts and the Muses, 1884-89. Oil on canvas, 93 x 231 cm. Potter Palmer Collection. The Art Institute of Chicago / Image courtesy The Art Institute of Chicago