A Woman Distributing Bread from a Basket: Study for "Feed the Hungry," in the Chapel of the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy (Les Oeuvres de Miséricorde), Church of Saint-Eustache, Paris

1850–53

Not on view

With a sympathetic gaze, this figure extends a hand offering a loaf of bread, an embodiment of feeding the hungry, one of the seven works of mercy that Biennourry was commissioned to paint with fellow Prix de Rome winner Eugène Damery (1823–1853) for a chapel in the Church of Saint-Eustache in Paris. This was the artist’s third major religious commission after successfully completing decorations for the Parisian churches of Saint-Roch and Saint-Séverin. The restoration and redecoration of Saint-Eustache from 1842 to 1860 involved more than twenty academic painters, though many, such as Biennourry, are little known today.

Artwork Details

Title: A Woman Distributing Bread from a Basket: Study for "Feed the Hungry," in the Chapel of the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy (Les Oeuvres de Miséricorde), Church of Saint-Eustache, Paris
Artist: Victor-François-Eloi Biennourry (French, Bar-sur-Aube 1823–1893 Paris)
Date: 1850–53
Medium: Fabricated black and white chalk, squared with fabricated black chalk, on blue laid paper
Dimensions: 15-3/4 x 9-7/8 in. (40.0 x 25.1 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Gift of Alexander B.V. Johnson and Roberta J.M. Olson, 1998
Object Number: 1998.406.2
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By Victor-François-Eloi Biennourry

In the same medium

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Study of a Soldier, Victor-François-Eloi Biennourry French, Conté crayon, red chalk, and pastel, heightened with white, on pale buff paper; squared in conté crayon — Study of a Soldier
Victor-François-Eloi Biennourry
1851–52

Standing Soldier: Study for the Chapel of Saints Peter and Paul in the Church of Saint-Séverin, Paris, Victor-François-Eloi Biennourry French, Conté crayon, red chalk, heightened with white, on blue paper; squared in conté crayon — Standing Soldier: Study for the Chapel of Saints Peter and Paul in the Church of Saint-Séverin, Paris
Victor-François-Eloi Biennourry
1851–52

Sunset, Eugène Delacroix French, Pastel on blue laid paper — Sunset
Eugène Delacroix
ca. 1850

Corridor in the Asylum, Vincent van Gogh Dutch, Brush and oils over black chalk on pink laid paper — Corridor in the Asylum
Vincent van Gogh
September 1889

The Connoisseur, Honoré Daumier French, Pen and ink, wash, watercolor, lithographic crayon, and gouache over black chalk on wove paper — The Connoisseur
Honoré Daumier
ca. 1860–65

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