Esquisse pour l’église Notre-Dame-de-Lorette : L’Adoration des mages

The three Magi kneel before the Virgin and the Christ Child in a composition prepared for the decoration of the church of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette in Paris, one of the grand religious commissions of the July Monarchy. Jean-Pierre Granger, winner of the Prix de Rome in 1800 and a pupil of Jacques-Louis David, had been among the painters chosen in 1823 to adorn the new church, and this rapid modello sets the rich colours of the Adoration against the deep shadow of the stable. The painting is held in the Petit Palais, musée des Beaux-arts de la Ville de Paris.