Gallery LabelHeim, the pre-eminent official painter of the Bourbon Restoration, is one of the least known painters to have achieved fame and success in France in the 1820s. His oil sketches have always been prized by connoisseurs, and this one is especially vigorous. It is one of two preparatory sketches for the much larger picture of the same subject that was shown at the Salon of 1824 (Musée du Louvre, Paris). The painting is filled with dramatic action as the Romans attack the Jerusalemites against a backdrop of classical buildings with crowds gathered on the steps.

Provenance[art market, Paris, 1987–at least 1995]; sale, Sotheby's, New York, January 24, 2002, no. 72, for $18,000 to Mazoh; [Stephen Mazoh & Co., Rhinebeck, N.Y., 2002; sold to MMA]