Joan Of Arc Naturalism

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an incredible place filled with vast amounts of artworks that will fascinate and ensnare the attention of all who visit. In just a visit one could walk through history by viewing the breathtaking artworks from all throughout time as well as different regions of the world. Walking through the museum and stumbling in front of a painting in there was an image that was so transfixing amongst so many awe-inspiring art around. This painting happened to be Joan of Arc, created by Jules Bastien-Lepage during a movement in France called Naturalism. The Naturalism movement emerged in opposition of Romanticism that was dominate at the time. The Joan of Arc is a perfect example of the Naturalism movement in Paris in which …show more content…
The subject of the painting is based on an historical event. The painting is of a young French teenage girl, Joan, from the province of Lorraine during medieval Europe. Joan began having visions of Saint Margaret, Saint Michael and Saint Catherine, at the young age of 13 in which they told her of how she needed to support King Charles VII and help drive the English out of France. Despite her young age and class of being a peasant girl and nothing more as well as having no influence in the days’ society, Joan was instrumental in the recapturing of many French towns and cities throughout the territory of France. With her victories she was able to free those from English rule during what was known as the Hundred Years War. As a result of her heroism in which stories of her victories and fight for the French were spread vast and swiftly, Joan had become a patriotic symbol of France as well as a beacon of hope for the French people. Jules Bastien-Lepage captures the significant moment of Joan’s life and tells the story of when she receives her vision of the three saints in her parents’ gardens behind their house to rise against the English invaders and fight for King Charles