Her Appeal to the Dauphin (Joan of Arc series: II) 1906

Louis Maurice Boutet de Monvel’s painting offers a tapestry-like scene of Joan of Arc appealing to the Dauphin. Can you imagine the hours spent arranging the figures on the canvas? The care in the detail of the pattern creates a flattened perspective; a beautiful decorative frieze. Looking at this piece, I think about what it must have been like for Boutet de Monvel to paint it—the kind of thinking he was doing, and what he was trying to do with the medium. He was probably surrounded by other paintings, other tapestries. In this work, the artist wasn’t trying to show off some virtuoso brushstroke, or some clever illusion. Instead, he has created an atmosphere of reverence and devotion, a sense of formality. It’s easy to imagine that his intention was to find a way to render the scene of the appeal of Joan of Arc in the most honest way he knew how. As painters, we're always in conversation with other artists from the past and present, borrowing and building on their ideas to create something new.