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This painting by Paul Delaroche dramatic scene of Joan of Arc's interrogation in 1824. The large canvas, measuring 277 by 217.5 centimeters, shows the young saint lying ill on a bed of straw while the Cardinal of Winchester threatens her with damnation. His fierce profile and angular posture contrast sharply with Joan's vulnerable but defiant position, her manacled hands clasped in prayer.
Delaroche took artistic liberty with history. Joan was actually interrogated by Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, not by the Cardinal of Winchester. The artist chose Winchester because English audiences knew him from Shakespeare's Henry VI plays. The 1824 Salon, where this painting debuted, marked the official birth of Romanticism in French art. Delaroche's work hung alongside paintings by Delacroix, Scheffer, and Horace Vernet.
Critics praised the composition, which drew inspiration from Titian's "Pope Paul III and his Grandsons." The subject of Joan of Arc carried strong nationalist and royalist associations in France after the Bourbon restoration of 1815. Today the painting hangs at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, with a smaller replica at the Wallace Collection in London.

Théodore Géricault
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Rouen, Rouen

Théodore Géricault
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Rouen, Rouen

Théodore Géricault
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Rouen, Rouen

Théodore Géricault
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Rouen, Rouen
Luxury wall art with the same mood and energy. Gallery-quality canvas, no museum crowds.
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