Augusta Lebaron-Desves (1806 – 1894) - Saint Marane and saint Cyr

Augusta LEBARON-DESVES (Paris, 1806 – Paris, 1894).

Saint Marane and saint Cyr.
Salon des Artistes Vivants, Paris, 1844, n°1117.
Oil on canvas.
Signed.
H : 62 ; W : 52 cm.

The painting, exhibited at the Salon of 1844, appears in the booklet under number 1117, accompanied by a long extract from “La Vie des Saints” by Father François Giry explaining the subject.

The two young women, Cyr and Marane, are nuns coming from Berea in Syria in the 5th century. They choose to live in strict seclusion, walled in, and having as their only contact with the outside world a window through which the faithful could communicate. They lived for forty-two years in total asceticism. The composition takes up the elements described in “The Lives of the Saints” by Father François Giry; the protagonists are dressed soberly, accompanied by the attributes of their vocation: vanity, the crucifix and holy scriptures.
Deliberately, the perspective of the courtyard is treated in an archaic manner, recalling the art of the primitives. Augusta Lebaron thus fits into the historical genre in vogue since the 1830s, worthy heir of Robert-Fleury, her master in painting.

The unusual choice of subject reveals the artist's desire to show a certain religious erudition. Augusta Lebaron-Desves also presented several religious subjects during her presentations at the Salon and won a second class medal in 1839.