The paintings were placed in the grand gallery on the first floor, where they produced a most beautiful decorative effect. Puvis de Chavannes, delighted at this unhoped-for good fortune, offered to complete the decoration of the gallery, by painting the panels occupying the spaces between the windows. The illumination is exceedingly bad, but with infinite art the painter succeeded in harmonizing his compositions with the atmosphere and light of the room. It should be noted further that the subjects treated in the panels on the right gallery relate to the picture of _War_, which faces them; they are a _Standard-Bearer_ and a _Woman weeping over the ruins of her home_. The same holds true of the painting consecrated to _Peace_, the corresponding panels being a _Harvester_ and a _Woman spinning_. Puvis de Chavannes considered himself fortunate in having two of his works which he so greatly loved find a place in a museum. The municipality of Amiens was none the less delighted in possessing them; it gave proof of this by once more sending its municipal architect to him on a special embassy: "I need two more mural paintings to decorate the main staircase of the museum. Do you happen to have what I need ready made, as you did the other time?" The architect was jesting. Puvis de Chavannes betook himself to a corner of his studio, and unrolling two canvases, presented them to M. Diot: "Here are what you want. These two pictures are of the same dimensions as _Peace_ and _War_; they represent _Repose_ and _Labour_ and form part of the same series. Will they serve your purpose?" They served the architect's purpose to perfection. Unfortunately the city of Amiens did not have the money to pay for them. The difficulty was explained to the artist who, with his customary disinterestedness, made a present of both the paintings. They were soon stretched in the places for which they were intended, in a framework of fruits and flowers, and produced an admirable effect. The municipality of Amiens was so well satisfied with these paintings that it decided at the cost of great sacrifices to commission Puvis de Chavannes to prepare a large composition destined to occupy the entire upper panel of the staircase on the side of the grand gallery. This panel was intersected by two doorways. Puvis de Chavannes set to work immediately. In the Salon of 1865 he exhibited his _Ave Picardia Nutrix_, destined for the Museum of Amiens. The painting produced a veritable sensation. Even the unskilled in art experienced an instinctive emotion in the presence of this important canvas which they did not fully understand, but which they felt to be sincere; as to the artists, they were obliged to acknowledge that the painter whom they had scoffed and derided, and who had now produced the _Picardia Nutrix_, was unquestionably a master.