File:Delaroche, Paul - A Christian Martyr Drowned in the Tiber During the Reign of Diocletian - 1855.jpg

(b. 1797, Paris, d. 1859, Paris)

Young Christian Martyr 1855 Oil on canvas, 171 x 148 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris

The Nazarenes painted quasi-devotional portraits of each other and their ideal wives or longed-for lovers, often doomed to early death from common diseases of the time. Perhaps the most extreme expression of this sentiment occurs in a series of religious pictures painted by Delaroche after the death of his wife, Louise Vernet, in 1845. In the finest and strangest of these, the Young Christian Martyr, her features float on the dark waters of the Tiber, lit by the halo of sainthood.

--- Keywords: --------------

Author: DELAROCHE, Paul Title: Young Christian Martyr Form: painting Time-line: 1801-1850 School: French