THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE VIRGIN
By BARTOLOME ESTEBAN MURILLO


THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE VIRGIN
By MURILLO (1618-1682)
IN THE LOUVRE, PARIS

This picture is the more amazing when one considers the sublimity of the subject, the difficulty of giving expression to such a thought, and the genius with which the artist has revealed his idea through the medium of his brush. Murillo has given the world by means of this canvas a picture poem that we may rank with Milton's" Paradise Lost." Where one false step would lead him to blasphemy or to bathos, he has maintained the dignity and splendour of the subject unimpaired. The holy rapture of the Virgin, the joy of motherhood, and the divinity of the occasion are wonderfully expressed, and nowhere does his genius betray him into belittling the inspiring majesty of the theme.

Murillo's career was typical of a painter's life at that time, when the Church was the great patron of Art, and the artist required to rely upon its support unless, like Velazquez, the same aid was forthcoming from the Royal Court. He was born in Seville of humble parents, and his first essays in art took the form of rough religious pictures for the fairs of his town and for exportation to South America. He was fortunate enough to secure the patronage of Velazquez, through whose influence he was enabled to study the masterpieces in the royal collections.

Soon after, he painted eleven pictures for the convent of San Francisco, at Seville, which made him the most prominent painter of the town. A year or two later he married a lady of fortune, and ere long he settled down to his period of maturity in which his most splendid works were produced.

The Immaculate Conception was a favourite subject with him, and invariably he treated it in the same manner. The present example was originally in the collection of Marshal Soult, and after being purchased originally for 250 pounds was finally acquired for the French nation for 24,000 pounds,

From the book "Famous Paintings" Volume 2 printed in 1913.

Mike McCain has provided more information about Murillo's work which you may find interesting.

Large files of this public domain print are available at Stock Photos at Songs of Praise
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Online "Name the Painting"









Bartolome Esteban Murillo
paintings at Olga's Gallery (2 pages)

Murillo Biography
at Olga's Gallery

Murillo
at Web Museum, Paris

Murillo Biography and Prints
(Spanish version)

Bartolome Esteban Murillo
view by time period at Web Gallery of Art

Bartolome Esteban Murillo
Catholic Encyclopedia


Famous Paintings in this Series





James Archer
My Great Grandmother


Bashkirtseff
The Meeting


Bouguereau
Charity


John Brett
From the Dorsetshire Cliffs


Arnesby Brown
The River Bank


Joseph Clark
Mother's Darling


John Constable
The Hay-Wain


Jean Baptiste Camille
Corot
The Fisherman's Hut


Jean Baptiste Camille
Corot
A Flood


Leonardo Da Vinci
Monna Lisa


Edouard Detaille
The Dream


Henri Fantin-Latour
Flowers


Thomas Gainsborough
Queen Charlotte


Thomas Gainsborough
The Market Cart


Jean Baptiste Greuze
The Head of a Girl


Jean Baptiste Greuze
Fidelity


James Clark Hook
Home With the Tide


Alfred William Hunt
Windsor Castle


Josef Israels
The Shipwrecked Mariner


B.W. Leader
The Stream in Summer-time


Madame Vigee Le Brun
Portrait of the Artist

Alphonse Legros
A Canal With a Fisherman


Anton Mauve
Watering Horses


J.L.E. Meissonier
The Cavalier


Sir J.E. Millais
Speak! Speak!


Sir J.E. Mallais
My First Sermon


George Morland
The Reckoning


George Morland
The Inside of a Stable


Murillo
The Immaculate Conception
of the Virgin


Alfred Parsons
When Nature Painted
All Things Gay


Ralph Peacock
The Sisters


Rembrandt
Syndics of the
Cloth Merchants' Guild


Guido Reni
"Ecce Homo"


Sir Joshua Reynolds
Portrait of Mrs. Richard Hoare
With Her Infant Son


Briton Riviere
The Temptation
in the Wilderness


Dante Gabriel
Rossetti
Day Dreams


John Singer Sargent
Miss Ellen Terry
as Lady Macbeth


Lady Stanley
(Dorothy Tennant)
His First Offence


Jan Steen
Grace Before Meat


Marcus Stone
On the Road from
Waterloo to Paris


Constant Troyon
Watering Cattle


H.S. Tuke
"All Hands to the Pumps"


Velazquez
King Philip IV. of Spain


S.E. Waller
Sweethearts and Wives


Thomas Webster
The Smile

Index
Famous Paintings Volume 1
Art Gallery

Index
Famous Paintings Volume 2
Art Gallery

Index
Art Appreciation
Lessons