The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Joan of Arc

c. 1889

Ernest Meissonier

(French, 1815–1891)
France, 19th century
graphite, red chalk, colored washes, and black and white gouache
Sheet: 18.8 x 30.3 cm (7 3/8 x 11 15/16 in.)
Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2008.358
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Ernest Meisonnier found the original subject proposed for his Pantheon mural commission—Saint Geneviève—to be uninspiring and instead proposed an allegorical Triumph of France featuring Joan of Arc alongside Charlemagne and Napoleon Bonaparte, among others.

Description

This drawing is a rare study relating to Ernest Meissonier's never-realized mural for the Pantheon in Paris. After seeking and receiving the commission in 1874, Meisonnier procrastinated on the project for many years. Here, the French heroine Joan of Arc appears at center, without a helmet, on a bare white horse, staring ahead with steadfast calm. The figure of Joan in this drawing appears to correspond to the subject in a now-lost design for the complete painting, which Meissonier presented in 1889.
  • 1891-1893
    Estate of the artist
    1893
    (his studio sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 18-20, 1893, no. 464)
    after 1893-1899
    Alfred Hartmann, Mulhouse
    1899
    (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 12-15, 1899, no. 92)
    1975
    (sale, Sotheby-Parke-Bernet, New York, October 3, 1975, no. 169, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH)
    1975-2008
    Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    2008-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Wax seal of sale on verso of tertiary support.
    2 In this sale the drawing is described as having a monogram at the right, no longer present on the sheet. 
  • Exposition Meissonier. Exh. Cat. Paris: Galerie Georges Petit, 1893. Mentioned: p. 100, no. 464
    Gréard, M.O. Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier: Ses souvenirs, ses entretiens. Paris: Hachette, 1897. Mentioned: p. 432
    Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Mentioned: pp. 126-27, 144, no. 58; Reproduced: p. 127
  • French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002).
    Exposition Meissonier. Galerie Georges Petit (organizer).
  • {{cite web|title=Joan of Arc|url=false|author=Ernest Meissonier|year=c. 1889|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2008.358