Group of Apostles

Hippolyte Flandrin

1854–61 · Graphite, squared, on light gray paper · Drawings and Prints

In this study, Flandrin works out the positioning of two apostles—reprising the clasped hands of the figure in profile at right—in preparation for a mural titled "The Mission of the Apostles" in the nave of the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Près, Paris. The numbering of the grid along the lower edge from seventeen to twenty-two suggests how this study aligned with others in composing the mural. The artist completed eighty-five paintings throughout the sanctuary, choir, nave, and transepts of the church between 1842 and his death in 1864. As an ensemble, they represent the most ambitious religious decorative program completed in France in the nineteenth century.

Artist

Hippolyte Flandrin

Date

1854–61

Medium

Graphite, squared, on light gray paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Stephen A. Geiger Gift, 1991