Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc, from near the end of Meissonier's life (he died in 1891), is a study for a larger work rendered in the most ambitious combination of drawing media in his surviving output: graphite, red chalk, colored washes, and both black and white gouache. The multiple media allow Meissonier to achieve the tonal range and color effects of a painting within the format of a drawing, producing a work that occupies a middle ground between drawing and painting. Joan of Arc was a subject of particular significance in late 19th-century France, where her cult had been revived by the nationalist and religious movements that sought to restore France's identity after the defeat of 1870-71.

The Joan of Arc cult reached its peak in the decades following the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune, when France needed a national hero who combined military courage with religious conviction. Meissonier's drawing participates in this cult, depicting Joan at the moment of her divine mission — the subject that most French artists preferred because it emphasized her spiritual authority rather than her military defeat and execution.

Joan of Arc is Meissonier's most ambitious drawing and his most patriotic subject: a national hero rendered with every medium at his disposal. The combination of graphite, red chalk, colored washes, and gouache produces an image that is halfway between drawing and painting — appropriate for a subject that is halfway between history and myth.