05 Works, Today, May 30th is Saint Joan's day, her story in Paintings #150

Jules Bastien-Lepage

Joan of Arc, c. 1879

Oil on canvas

100 × 110 in (254 × 279.4 cm)

Metropolitan Museum of Art

As one of the Lorraine natives inspired by the sudden relevance of Joan of Arc's image, Jules Bastien-Lepage in 1875 started sketches for this life-sized portrait of Joan of Arc showing her at the moment that she received her first call to arms against the English invaders of 1424. Bastien-Lepage captures the suddenness of the call by showing the overturned chair from which she has just sprung at her spinning wheel behind her together with the wet edge of her dress that has just brushed through the dew from the weeds in the garden at the back of her parents' house. More on this painting

Jules Bastien-Lepage (1 November 1848 – 10 December 1884) was a French painter closely associated with the beginning of naturalism, an artistic style that emerged from the later phase of the Realist movement. He was born in the village of Damvillers, Meuse, and spent his childhood there. Bastien took an early liking to drawing, and his parents fostered his creativity by buying prints of paintings for him to copy.

Jules's first formal training was at Verdun, and prompted by a love of art he went to Paris in 1867, where he was admitted to the École des Beaux-arts, working under Cabanel. He was awarded first place for drawing but spent most of his time working alone, only occasionally appearing in class. During the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, Bastien fought and was wounded. After the war, he returned home to paint the villagers and recover from his wound. In 1873 he painted his grandfather in the garden, a work that would bring the artist his first success at the Paris Salon.

His initial success was confirmed in 1875 by the First Communion, a picture of a little girl minutely worked up. The last picture, Haymaking (Les Foins), now in the Musée d'Orsay, was widely praised by critics and the public alike. It secured his status as one of the first painters in the Naturalist school.

Between 1880 and 1883 he traveled in Italy. The artist, long ailing, had tried in vain to re-establish his health in Algiers. He died in Paris in 1884, when planning a new series of rural subjects. More Jules Bastien-Lepage

The Roman Catholic Church pays tribute Thursday, May 30, to the life and works of the patron saint of soldiers and of France – Saint Joan (Santa Juana) of Arc.

Hermann Stilke, (1803–1860)

Joan of Arc in Battle, c. 1843

(Central Part of The Life of Joan of Arc Triptych)

Oil on canvas

135 × 146 cm (53.1 × 57.4 in)

Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Born Jeanne la Pucelle in 1412 in Domremy, France, St. Joan, at the young age of 17, led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years’ War, a prolonged conflict between France and England from 1337 to 1453.

Eugène Lenepveu, (1819–1898)

Coronation of Charles VII in Reims in the presence of Joan of Arc, c. 1880

Panthéon de Paris

Jules Eugène Lenepveu Boussaroque de Lafont, known as Jules Eugène Lenepveu (1819 – 16 October 1898, Paris) was a French painter. Born at Angers, he studied at the école des Beaux-Arts, and later he was a pupil of François-Édouard Picot in Paris. He entered the École nationale. After winning the Prix de Rome, he went to Rome to complete his education. He became famous for his vast historical canvases, including the ceilings of the Opéra de Paris (1869–1871; covered by a Marc Chagall work), and of the theatre at Angers (1871). He was director of the French Academy in Rome from 1873 to 1878. More on Jules Eugène Lenepveu

Attributing her victories to divine guidance, Charles VII was able to assume his rightful throne as king of France with her by his side.

Dillens, Adolf-Alexander, 1821-1877

Capture of Joan of Arc, between 1847 and 1852

Oil on panel

52,5x72 cm

Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Adolf Alexander Dillens, (1821–1877), a Belgian genre-painter, was born at Ghent in 1821, and received instruction from his elder brother Hendrik Dillens. His first works were of an historical nature, but he afterwards devoted himself to pictures illustrating Zealand peasant life. He died in 1877. More on Adolf Alexander Dillens

Later, however, she started to lose her battles because of lack of support from the king. She was captured and burned at the stake in Rouen, France on May 30, 1431 at the age of 19. Her last word was “Jesus.”

Hermann Stilke, (1803–1860)

Joan of Arc's Death at the Stake, c. 1843

Oil on canvas

119.5 cm (47 in); Width: 83.5 cm (32.8 in)

Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Hermann Anton Stilke , born on January 29 , 1803 in Berlin and died on September 22, 1860in Berlin, is a German romantic painter .

Stilke studied at the Academy of Arts in Berlin , then in Munich from 1821, at the Academy of Fine Arts. He then studied at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts. He painted the arches of the Hofgarten of Munich with many frescoes .

He left to tour Italy in 1827 and went first to the north, then to Rome . He returned to Düsseldorf in 1833. He worked in the knights' room of the castle of Stolzenfels , near Koblenz , on the banks of the Rhine from 1842 to 1846, on the order of Frederick William IV 

He returned to Berlin in 1850, where he died ten years later at the age of 57.

His work is mainly inspired by religious and romantic themes ( the Maid of Orleans , Saint George and the Angel , The Last Christians of Syria (1841), etc.) More on Hermann Anton Stilke

Thirty years later, St. Joan was exonerated of all guilt and was subsequently beatified at the historic Norte Dame Cathedral in Paris which was partly damaged by a recent fire. Pope Benedict XV canonized her in 1920. More on Saint Joan of Arc

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