Oil Sketch: Christ Expiring On The Cross

Remarkable small study, made in oil on wood, after Christ expiring on the cross, painted in 1822 by Pierre Paul Prud'hon exhibited at the 1823 salon, and acquired by King Louis XVIII. This work enjoyed immense success and many artists were commissioned to make copies to size (2.78 meters in height) to replenish the churches of France looted during the revolution. Thus, Jean Jacques Henner, still very young, made a copy for the church of Altkirch. Our small painting is reminiscent of this work. We find the same way of leaving the Virgin in the shadow (barely sketched) and the red hair of the Magdalene which takes the light. The finesse of the details (torso of Christ, the feet and the nails), the perfect proportion of the composition, could even suggest a bossetto. Whatever it is, the use of bitumen for the blacks, the perfect accuracy of the execution, makes this painting by a skillful hand from the middle of the 19th century. It is painted on a thin oak panel in perfect condition, never cleaned.