Boutet de Monvel’s Jeanne d’Arc: From Print to Paint

Nora Heimann, Associate Professor of Art History and Chair of the Department of Art at the Catholic University of America Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel (1850–1913) explored the subject of Joan of Arc in several memorable forms, among which are six dazzling paintings in oil and gold leaf (c. 1906–1912). Nora Heimann places the artist's treatment of Joan of Arc in its historic context. She analyzes the stylistic origins of the paintings, their genesis in Boutet de Monvel’s illustrated book Jeanne d'Arc (1896), their relationship to an award-winning monumental mural by the same artist, which disappeared in the early 20th century, and the peregrinations of the six paintings from their commission to their current display at the National Gallery of Art. This lecture was given on December 12, 2018, as part of an expert panel on French medievalism at the turn of the 20th century by examining the particular cases of Boutet de Monvel’s Jeanne d’Arc and book arts, along with the greater phenomenon of medievalism during the Belle Époque.