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Two by two, monks wearing black and white, hooded robes lead a procession headed by an armored woman on horseback, Joan of Arc, on a rutted, sand-brown road in this horizontal painting. Most of the monks fold their hands at their waist, and the others tuck their hands into voluminous sleeves. One monk holds a tall gold cross and one a horizontal forked banner decorated with two angels. Another pair of monks in pecan-brown, hooded robes walk beside Joan’s butterscotch-brown horse. Joan wears a pale, silvery helmet and full armor, and she holds her fingertips together in prayer as she looks up. The horse has a brilliant blue saddle and collar. A young man wearing marigold orange, light blue, and black leads the horse by the bridle. More armored men on horseback behind Joan hold red, blue, or striped lances vertically by their sides. Dozens of men line the far side of the road, kneeling and holding up tall, blade-tipped halberds. Countless men on horseback line the horizon in the distance, which comes two-thirds of the way up the composition. The artist signed the painting in gray in the lower left, “M. Boutet de Monvel.”

Louis Maurice Boutet de Monvel

The Maid in Armor on Horseback (Joan of Arc series: III), c. 1908-late 1909

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G4

Medium

oil and gold leaf on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 75.57 × 171.45 cm (29 3/4 × 67 1/2 in.)

framed: 97.79 × 193.04 × 10.16 cm (38 1/2 × 76 × 4 in.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection)

Accession Number

2015.19.36

Artists / Makers

Louis Maurice Boutet de Monvel (painter) French, 1850 - 1913

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

lower left: M. Boutet de Monvel

Provenance

Commissioned by William A. Clark [1839-1925], New York; bequest April 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Clark, William Andrews
Corcoran Gallery of Art

Exhibition History

1913: Joan of Arc: Paintings, Pictures, Medals, Coins, Statuary, Books, Porcelains, Manuscripts, Curios, Etc., American Numismatic Society Building, New York, 1913, no. 613, repro. in photograph of installation.

1981: The Artist as Illustrator, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 31 March - 14 June 1981, no catalogue.

2001: Antiquities to Impressionism: The William A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001-2002, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2006: Joan of Arc, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 18 November 2006 - 21 January 2007, no. 3, repro.

Bibliography

1925: Carroll, Dana H. Catalogue of Objects of Fine Art and Other Properties at the Home of William Andrews Clark, 962 Fifth Avenue. Part I. Unpublished manuscript, n.d. (1925): no. 22-23, no. C.