Jean-Léon GÉROME (1824-1904) [FRANCE] - Lot 1

Jean-Léon GÉROME (1824-1904) [FRANCE] Preparatory sketch for a fresco project for the church of Saint-Séverin in Paris. Oil on canvas. Signed on the right side. Located "Église Saint Severin" lower left, Annotation lower right: "Saint Louis taking the cross in front of his very high barons in order to engage them to cross themselves like him", indications on the right side: "Under this painting will be executed a bas-relief, figures in gold-blue background - in line only" and "the second wall of the chapel is covered by an old painting to be restored (painting on gold background), J. Gérôme." 46 x 38 cm (Small accident) Of Merovingian origin, Saint-Séverin church is a masterpiece of the flamboyant Gothic style. The first church dates back to the 6th century, and between the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, the church added a series of eighteen radiating chapels to its chevet and side aisles. Between 1840 and 1865, these chapels underwent a major campaign of decoration and enhancement. The painter Alexandre Hesse (1806-1879) decorated the Sainte-Geneviève chapel, while the Saint-Jean chapel hosted the first monumental work by the painter Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-1864). In 1850, the City of Paris commissions the painter Sébastien-Melchior Cornu (1804-1870), a pupil of Ingres, to paint two scenes dedicated to Saint Séverin. Jean Léon Gérôme produced a composition for the Saint-Jérôme chapel in 1850. Without having any proof, we can speculate that our "Saint-Louis et la Couronne d'épine" (Saint Louis and the Crown of Thorns) may be by Gérôme's hand, and a first idea for an unrealized composition.