This work is thought to be another version of Poor Fisherman (1881) now in the Museé d'Orsay. Chavannes revived a sense of monumentality in painting by taking essentially traditional forms and simplifying and subduing their structure. His palette was limited to gray, blue, ochre and green, which were then mixed with white to lend his paintings a fresco-like image. Taking as his base the intersection between the broad expanse of the horizon and the vertical form of his figures, Chavannes conjures images of a biblical world that evoke a religious, poetic sensibility in the hearts of his viewers. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no. 94)
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