This oil is a study for a painting commissioned in 1830 by the Marquis Emmanuel de Pastoret, at the time President of the Chamber of Peers, whose portrait Delaroche had already painted the previous year. Traditionally, the artist accompanied his preparatory studies with a wax model, and Saint George was no exception. The commissioner’s son, passing through the master’s studio and seeing this small wax model, suggested that a monumental bronze should be made to decorate the lower part of the Champs-Elysées. This project, like the painting, was eventually abandoned, probably because of the events surrounding the July Revolution. However, a small bronze was made in 1832 by Honoré Gonon (1780-1850) from Delaroche’s model, and is now in the Musée du Louvre (Département des objets d’art, Inv. TH 133).

We would like to thank Mr Stephen Bann for providing us with valuable information.