Flandrin was commissioned to paint the frescoes in the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1842. The frescoes in the nave were executed between 1856 and 1863. This was probably his first thought for the figure of Hosea, shown here with a staff and scroll. An overall sketch of the first bay on the left of the nave, with L’Annonciation et Moïse devant le buisson ardent, executed around 1856, shows the same figure as in the final composition, in the second bay on the right of the nave (Les Frères Flandrin, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris 1984, no. 59, reproduced).