Christ on the Cross with Mary Magdalene

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

1640/50

Follower of Simon Vouet
French, 1590-1649

This small painting showing the grief-stricken Saint Mary Magdalene alone at the foot of the cross was probably intended as a private devotional work. The same expressive figure of Magdalene appears in more complex treatments of the Crucifixion and the Lamentation by followers of Simon Vouet. Having worked in Rome before returning to Paris as first painter to Louis XIII in 1627, Vouet was a gifted teacher, attracting many students and collaborators to his Paris workshop. Vouet’s followers Charles Poërson, Michel Dorigny, and François Perrier have all suggested as the author of this painting. Though the artist remains unidentified, his debt to Vouet’s weighty figure types, active draper, and rich colors is clear.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Follower of Simon Vouet
Title: Christ on the Cross with Mary Magdalene
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1640–1650
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed at top of cross: INRI
Dimensions: 74.4 × 55.6 cm (29 5/16 × 21 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Harold T. Martin Trust
Reference Number: 1978.423
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/53061/manifest.json

The Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report 1978-79 (Chicago, 1979), p. 35.
Pierre Rosenberg, La Peinture française du XVIIe siècle dans les collections américaines, exh. cat., Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 1982, p. 375, no. 6 (ill.).
Rosenberg, “France in the Golden Age: A Postscript,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 17 (1982), p. 46.
Susan Wise and Malcolm Warner, French and British Paintings from 1600 to 1800 in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Collection (Chicago, 1996), pp. 114–116, ill.
J.-F. Méjanes in Musée du Louvre, Département des arts graphiques, Inventaire général des dessins, École française, vol. 13, De Pagnest à Puvis de Chavannes, ed. Catherine Legrand (Paris, 1997), p. 405, under no. 1638.
Barbara Brejon de Lavergnée, Nicole de Reyniès, and Nicolas Sainte Fare Garnot, Charles Poerson 1609-1667, exh. cat., Musées de Metz, 1997, pp. 215-8, no. 138, ill.

Private Collection, Zurich, to 1974 [according to letter of March 19, 1981 from Grizelda Grimond, Colnaghi to Susan Wise in curatorial file]; bought by Colnaghi, London, 1974 [according to letter cited above]; sold by Colnaghi to the Art Institute as by Michel Dorigny, 1978.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.