An 18th century ecstatic. Trial by crucifixion, 1879 Artcurial, 22 November 2023The painting, An XVIIIth century ecstatic. Trial by crucifixion, 1879,exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français, N° 2183, received a 2nd Medal. It is the first of a series on paranormal subjects :1885 Salon, N° 1810, A stigmatised woman in the Middle Ages 1886 Salon, Two Women under the influence of morphine 1890 Salon, Entranced patients in the Dr. Luys’s department at the Charité hospital, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims, Inv. 890.35.1.

In composition and execution, this painting shows Moreau de Tours’s studyof 18th century masters, in the spirit of the Counter-Reformation, as muchfor the subject matter of an ecstasy, as for the execution. Caravaggio’sinfluence is particularly obvious in the chiaroscuro and the diagonalcomposition of the scene. The position of the cross recalls the Conversion ofSaint Paul on the road to Damascus, 1600, and the Crucifixion of Saint Peter,1601, both in the Cerasi chapel in the Santa Maria del Popolo basilica inRome.

The young woman in ecstasy is no doubt Thérèse de CHAMP RENAUD,who also studied with Cabanel at the Beaux-Arts school as did GeorgesMOREAU DE TOURS, she exhibited under her own name at the Salonfrom 1885 to 1893. She was MOREAU DE TOURS’S muse, his model andpupil, who collaborated tosome of his works, and exhibited after hermarriage in 1893 also as Thérèse MOREAU DE TOURS.