Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

St. Stephen Discussing with the Members of the Synagogues, from the Life of St. Stephen

After Laurent de La Hyre
1606-1656

St. Stephen Discussing with the Members of the Synagogues, from the Life of St. Stephen

ca. 1646
14 1/4 x 9 5/8 inches (361 x 245 mm)
Graphite, black chalk and pen and black ink, on laid paper; squared in graphite.
I, 268a

Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.

Notes
Commissioned in 1646 by the church of Saint-Etienne-Du-Mont, Paris, La Hyre produced a suite of seventeen drawings for a tapestry series devoted to the Life of St. Stephen. The drawings are now in the Louvre, and are augmented by an additional six variants. The scenes, with their clear and precisely delineated settings, concern for perspective, structured action, and bookish subjects reflect La Hyre's principles and the appeal of his approach. La Hyre executed the designs which were rendered on canvas by Antoine de Le Sueur. The painted cartoon for this scene has not been located. While the variant drawings contain differences from the finished studies, the Morgan's drawing faithfully and without hesitation follows the compositional drawing in the Louvre, indicating it is a copy, as Rosenberg and Thuillier posited. Curiously, however, the copyist used two sheets of paper for the scene and carefully measured and squared it, suggesting that even if it is a copy it may have played a role in the creative process for this project.
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed at lower center, "13".
Associated names
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Bibliography
Denison, Cara D. French Drawings, 1550-1825. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984, no. 25.
Rosenberg, Pierre and Jacques Thuillier, Laurent de la Hyre (1606-1656). L'homme et l'oeuvre, no. 214.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department