Pierre Grivolas “ Les Flagellants au XIVe Siècle (Procession of Flagellants in the Fourteenth Century)”, 1867, Oil on Canvas, 175 x 208 cm, Calvet Museum, Avignon, France
Born in Avignon, France, in September of 1823, Pierre Grivolas was a French painter known for portraits, landscapes and genre scenes. Recognizing Grivolas’s early talent for drawing, his parents enrolled him in art classes. He won first prize in the 1843 Biennial Design Contest, sponsored by Avignon’s art foundation, La Foundation Calvet, a collection of historical and art legacies. The prize included a cash award which enabled Grivolas to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
At the École des Beaux-Arts, Grivolas met and was influenced by leader of the French Romantic movement Eugène Delacroix, neo-classical painter Dominique Ingres, and Hippolyte Flandrin, known today for his monumental decorative paintings. The outbreak of the February Revolution in 1848 forced Grivolas to return to his Avignon. Six years later, he became one of the first members of the Félibrige, a literary and cultural association founded by Frédéric Mistral and other writers to promote and defend the Provençal language.
In 1877, Pierre Grivolas became a founding member, along with writer Baptiste Bonnet, sculptor Jean Barnabé Amy, and others, of the Societa Belibrenco dé Paris. whose literary arm was the journal “Lou Viro-Souléu”, The monthly literary journal, published from 1889 to 1912, contained literary texts, and reports of the poetry Floral Games and other Parisian festivals.
Pierre Grivolas became Director of the École des Beaux-Arts d’Avignon from 1878 until his death. During his tenure, he emphasized plain air, or outdoor, painting over the prevalent Academicism, and became credited with creating the art movement known now as “Novelle École d’Avignon”, In 1894 to 1896, Pierre Grivolas, sometimes accompanied by his younger brother Antoine, a still-life painter, traveled through the small villages of France, living like shepherds and capturing the colors of the mountain landscapes in their paintings. Provencal French painter
Pierre Grivolas passed away in Avignon on February 5, 1906. His works are in many museums, including “Procession of Communiantes” at the Alauch Museum, the 1858 “Interior of a Spinning Mill” at the Louis Vouland Museum, and “Self-Portrait” at the Palace of the Roure.