La Sainte Famille

In a landscape strewn with antique ruins, the infant Saint John the Baptist presents two doves to the Christ Child, who sits on the Virgin’s knee and reaches toward them, while Joseph, seated beside Mary, leans forward to watch the exchange with quiet attention. Sébastien Bourdon, born in Montpellier and a founding member of the Académie royale de peinture in 1648, was the most eclectic of the French classicists, blending Poussin’s gravity, Venetian colour and the realism of the Dutch masters into a style entirely his own; this small Holy Family, painted in oils during his years of maturity, shows the gentle pastoral piety of his religious works. The painting is held in the Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris.