The Raising of Lazarus

Among the many religious works by Jean-Baptiste Deshays, this sketch-like yet powerful composition is preparatory for the Resurrection of Lazarus, exhibited at the Salon of 1763 (although not included in the Salon catalogue), and now in the J.E. Horvitz Collection, Boston (A.L. Clark, op. cit., 2017, no. 172, ill.). The sketch shows numerous differences with the final painting, notably in the position of the figures. A brown wash drawing, highlighted with white, of a format close to the present work, and lunette-shaped, is in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. 26200; see Bancel, op. cit., D. 107, ill.). At the Salon, the painting was admired by Diderot, whose description of the painted work ended with '[Deshays's] painting is small; but his manner is great' (Salon of 1763; see Le Goût de Diderot, Greuze, Chardin, Falconet, David, exhib. cat., Montpellier, Musée Fabre, and Lausanne, Fondation de l'Hermitage, 2013-2014, p. 199, p. 232).