Joan of Arc

Joan hears the saints who call her to lead France. Bastien-Lepage sets the encounter in a recognisable rural garden. After France lost Alsace and part of Lorraine in the war of 1870–71, Joan acquired renewed patriotic importance. The painter came from Lorraine himself.

Joan wears working clothes among garden plants. Bastien-Lepage grew up in a farming family and knew the rural world surrounding his future national heroine.

Michael, Catherine and Margaret appear behind Joan. Their almost transparent figures differ sharply from the solidly painted wall and vegetation.

The uneven wall and dark window belong to an ordinary village house. A religious vision unfolds in surroundings familiar from everyday experience.

A wooden chair stands among plants. Domestic details connect the saint’s story with the young peasant’s life before her military campaign.

Branches extend above and around Joan. Dense vegetation makes the saints difficult to notice immediately; the cause of her absorbed expression emerges gradually.

Bastien-Lepage trained under the academic painter Alexandre Cabanel. After unsuccessful Prix de Rome attempts, he turned towards rural subjects from his home region. Here, academic history painting meets close observation of village life.