Saint Sebastian Succored by the Holy Women
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 130.1 x 86 cm (51 1/4 x 33 7/8 in.) framed: 160 x 116.2 x 9.8 cm (63 x 45 3/4 x 3 7/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CF
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Timken Collection
Accession Number
1960.6.4
Art Historical Context
In the serene glow of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Cor's *Saint Sebastian Succored by the Holy Women* (1874), we encounter a poignant moment from Christian iconography. Painted late in the artist's life, this oil on canvas depicts the martyr Saint Sebastian, pierced by arrows and tenderly aided by holy women, a theme rooted in Renaissance traditions but infused with Corot's distinctive lyricism. At 130.1 x 86 cm, the work captures his shift toward intimate figure studies after decades mastering luminous landscapes. Corot, a pillar of the Barbizon School and precursor to Impressionism, employs his si...
About the Artist
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, born on July 16, 1796, in Paris to a prosperous bourgeois family—his father a former wig-maker turned draper and his mother a successful milliner—was initially apprenticed in the textile trade but pursued art from his mid-twenties with family support. He studied under the neoclassical landscapist Achille Etna Michallon in 1821–1822, who taught him to sketch outdoors in...