The Choir of the Capuchin Church in Rome

The Choir of the Capuchin Church in Rome

The Choir of the Capuchin Church in Rome
Artist:François Marius Granet (French, Aix-en-Provence 1775–1849 Aix-en-Provence)
Date:1814–15
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:77 1/2 x 58 1/4 in. (196.9 x 148 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of P. L. Everard, 1880
Accession Number:80.5.2

Granet conceived this subject during Napoleon's occupation of Rome, at which time the Capuchin order had been banished from its seventeenth-century church near piazza Barberini. Despite French policy, the painting was purchased by the Emperor's sister Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, for their brother Louis Bonaparte. He had seen it in Granet’s studio, where it created a sensation at the end of 1814, prompting Pope Pius VII to grant the artist an audience. This is the first version of a composition that Granet painted, by his own count, at least fifteen times.

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