Art Institute of Chicago
Saint John the Baptist Preaching in the Desert
Jean Baptiste Henri Deshays (French, 1729–1765)LinkedCulture matchlcp-aec94dac9259
- Date
- c. 1758–64
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Culture
- France
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 105704
From the Art Institute of Chicago record
A precocious talent, Jean-Baptiste Deshays married Rococo artist François Boucher’s daughter and became his father-in-law’s protégé. Although best known as a painter of religious subjects, Deshays often employed the soft, highly fluid manner that Boucher used for his amorous “boudoir” pictures. In fact, this work was for a long time believed to be by Boucher. The subject of the painting derives from the Gospel of Matthew: Seated before the multitude with his arms dramatically outstretched, John the Baptist warns, “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. Eugene A. Davidson
- Provenance
- Eugène Féral (d. 1900), Paris; sold Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 22–24, 1901, no. 13, as François Boucher, for Fr 320 [price according to an annotated sale catalogue in the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, and Pannier 1907]. Bourdier [according to a letter from Michel Strauss to John Maxon dated November 26, 1962, in curatorial files]. Alphonse Kann, Paris; sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, December 6–8, 1920, no. 5, as François Boucher, to Jules Strauss, for Fr 19,000; Jules Strauss (d. 1943), Paris; sold Galerie Charpentier, Paris, May 27, 1949, no. 14 (ill.), as François Boucher, to his grandson, Michel Strauss, London, for Fr 340,000 [according to an annotated sale catalogue at Galerie Heim, Paris]; sold by Michel Strauss to Mrs. Sterling Morton (d. 1969), Santa Barbara and Chicago, 1963 [according to registrar’s records]; by descent to her daughter, Suzette Morton Davidson, Chicago; on loan to the Art Institute, 1978; given to the Art Institute, 1979.
Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300033618
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