In 1864, Louis Janmot was commissioned to decorate the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris. This drawing serves as a preparatory sketch for one of Saint Étienne’s persecutors, depicted on the right side of the paintingMartyrdom of Saint Étienne (1866), which adorns the choir’s right wall. The present sketch, alongside works like Head of an Old Man Listening (1866) from the Périgueux Museum and Hand with a Book from the Bagnols-sur-Cèze Museum, showcases the intensity and vitality that defined his approach to this commission. Janmot spared no effort in his preparations, producing a series of sketches imbued with remarkable liveliness and vigour.

Janmot was a crucial figure in bridging the gap from Romanticism to Symbolism; two movements that between them emphasised emotion, individual experience, and the transcendence of reality. Initially trained in the classical traditions of the Écoledes Beaux-Arts, Janmot’s early works displayed the emotional depth and dramatic intensity of Romanticism, with a focus on the inner turmoil and spiritual struggles of his subjects.However, as his career progressed, his work began to evolve toward Symbolism, a movement that sought to represent the deeper, often hidden realities of the human condition through metaphor and allegory.

The 1860s were a pivotal decade for Janmot, marking a crucialshift in his artistic evolution. His magnum opus, Le Poème del’âme (The Poem of the Soul), created between 1860 and 1865, exemplified this change, exploring the spiritual journey ofthe soul through allegorical and symbolic imagery. The work’s focus on metaphysical themes and inner emotional states reflected Janmot’s growing interest in depicting the unseen,a hallmark of Symbolism. This period also coincided with a time of political and cultural upheaval in France, which influenced Janmot’s exploration of existential and spiritual questions, setting the stage for his later contributions to Symbolist art.