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Joan of Arc
Ernest Meissonier (French, 1815-1891)c. 1889
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
This drawing is a rare study relating to Ernest Meissonier's never-realized mural for the Pantheon in Paris. After seeking and receiving the commission in 1874, Meisonnier procrastinated on the project for many years. Here, the French heroine Joan of Arc appears at center, without a helmet, on a bare white horse, staring ahead with steadfast calm. The figure of Joan in this drawing appears to correspond to the subject in a now-lost design for the complete painting, which Meissonier presented in 1889.
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Details
- Title: Joan of Arc
- Creator: Ernest Meissonier (French, 1815-1891)
- Date Created: c. 1889
- Physical Dimensions: Sheet: 18.8 x 30.3 cm (7 3/8 x 11 15/16 in.)
- Provenance: Estate of the artist, (his studio sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 18-20, 1893, no. 464), Alfred Hartmann, Mulhouse, (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 12-15, 1899, no. 92), (sale, Sotheby-Parke-Bernet, New York, October 3, 1975, no. 169, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH), Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Drawing
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.358
- Medium: graphite, red chalk, colored washes, and black and white gouache
- Inscriptions: Signed with monogram, lower left
- Fun Fact: Ernest Meisonnier found the original subject proposed for his Pantheon mural commission—Saint Geneviève—to be uninspiring and instead proposed an allegorical Triumph of France featuring Joan of Arc alongside Charlemagne and Napoleon Bonaparte, among others.
- Department: Drawings
- Culture: France, 19th century
- Credit Line: Bequest of Muriel Butkin
- Collection: DR - French
- Accession Number: 2008.358
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