The Risen Christ Appearing to Souls in Purgatory

Art Historical Context

In the intimate drawing *The Risen Christ Appe to Souls in Purgatory* (1782), Charles Nicolas Cochin II captures a poignant moment of divine mercy from Catholic theology. Created in red chalk over traces of black, this small-scale work (5 1/8 x 6 1/4 in.) depicts the resurrected Christ, cross in hand, surrounded by angels as he extends salvation to tormented souls emerging from purgatory's flames. Cochin, a leading French artist of the Rococo-to-Neoclassical transition and director of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, infused his religious scenes with elegant draftsmanship honed through decades of engraving book illustrations and theatrical designs. The red chalk medium—known as sanguine—lends a warm, lifelike glow to the figures, allowing subtle modeling of flesh and drapery that highlights Cochin's mastery of light and emotion. Likely a preparatory study for printmaking, it reflects late 18th-century France's enduring Catholic devotion amid Enlightenment rationalism, just before the Revolution upended traditional art patronage. This evocative piece, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (Purchase, David L. Klein Jr. Memorial Foundation Inc. Gift, 1983), invites visitors to ponder themes of redemption and hope, bridging spiritual fervor with artistic finesse.