About the Artwork
This early work by Charles Le Brun, whom Louis XIV, King of France, dubbed “the greatest French painter of all time” was intended as an altarpiece for the chapel of the Hôtel-Dieu, a hospital in the French city of Lyon where Le Brun stayed on his return from artistic training in Rome. The devout expressions of the central figures with their upraised eyes and upturned faces are typical of Le Brun’s enduring interest in depicting human emotion in a clear, understandable manner. Even viewers unfamiliar with the biblical account of the presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple would understand that the event is intended to inspire reverence and awe. As director of the Royal Academy, the major teaching institution in the French art world, Le Brun went on to revolutionize the representation of expression and gesture in French painting.
The Presentation of Christ in the Temple
1645
Charles Le Brun
1619-1690
French
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 105 1/8 × 76 1/2 inches (267 × 194.3 cm) Overall (stretcher): 107 × 78 7/8 inches (271.8 × 200.3 cm) Framed: 122 × 92 7/8 × 4 1/2 inches, 230 pounds (309.9 × 235.9 × 11.4 cm, 104.3 kg)
Paintings
European Painting
Founders Society Purchase, contribution of Mr. and Mrs. Allan Shelden III in memory of Allan Shelden IV
73.1
Public Domain
Markings
Signed and dated, lower left: C. Le Brun Par. Fec. Romae anno 1645
Provenance
Collection Etienne Cochardet [1597-1661, merchant clothier and treasurer of merchant-clothiers' guild in Lyons] (Lyons, France);1647, sold to Chapel of the Hôtel-Dieu (Lyons, France);
Chapel of the Chateau de Fléchères, Collection Count Olivier de La Ferrière (Fareins, Ain, France);
by descent to the inheritors of Count de La Ferrière;
sold to (Galerie Heim, Paris, France);
1973-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance page (opens in a new tab)Exhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest Feedback (opens in a new tab)Published References
Clapasson, André. Histoire et Description de la Ville de Lyon. Lyon, 1761, p. 53 [describing the painting while in church of the Hôtel-Dieu in Lyons, France].
Jouin, Henry. Charles le Brun et les Arts sous Louis XIV. Paris, 1889, p. 470 [citing engraving by Benoît Ier Audran].
French Paintings & Sculptures of the 17th Century, Part I. Exh. cat., Heim Gallery. London, 1968, p. 16, cat. 31 (ill.).
Butler, Joseph T. "Le Brun Altarpiece for Detroit." Connoisseur 183, no. 736 (June 1973): p. 136 (ill.).
Cummings, Frederick J. "Curatorial and Museum Department Reports." Bulletin of the DIA 52, no. 1 (1973): pp. 8-9 (ill.).
"Musées." Connaissance des Arts 255 (May 1973): p. 11 (ill.).
"New Acquisition for Detroit." Apollo 97, no. 135 (May 1973): p. 540 (ill.).
Cuzin, Jean-Pierre, and Pierre Rosenberg. "A Le Brun at Ponce." Burlington Magazine 116, no. 850 (January 1974): pp. 4-7; p. 4, note 1.
Chomer, Gilles. "'The Purification of the Virgin' by Charles Le Brun: A Few Notes." Bulletin of the DIA 55, no. 4 (1977): pp. 183-189 (ill.) [as "The Purification of the Virgin"].
Chomer, Gilles. "Charles Le Brun avant 1646: Contribution aux Problemes de sa Formation et de ses Oeuvres de Jeunesse." Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Francais (1977): pp. 93-106; pp. 101-102 (ill.) [as "La Purification de la Vierge"].
Cummings, Frederick J., ed. Selected Works from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1979, p. 105, no. 76 (ill.) [as "Purification of the Virgin"].
Rosenberg, Pierre. France in the Golden Age: Seventeenth-Century French Paintings in American Collections. Exh. cat., Réunion des Musées Nationaux and Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1982, p. 355, no. 6 (ill.) [not in the exhibition; as "The Purification"].
Henshaw, Julia, ed. A Visitor's Guide: The Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1995, p. 204 (ill.) [as "The Purification of the Virgin"].
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Charles Le Brun, The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, 1645, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, contribution of Mr. and Mrs. Allan Shelden III in memory of Allan Shelden IV, 73.1.
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