Esquisse pour l'église Saint François Xavier : Isaïe

Jules-Élie Delaunay's companion sketch of Isaiah for the Saint-François-Xavier commission complements his Daniel study as part of a program of Old Testament prophets for the Paris church. Isaiah — the great prophet whose visions of the Messiah made him central to Christian typology — was among the most frequently depicted prophets in Western religious art. Delaunay's choice to render these prophets for a nineteenth-century church decoration placed him within a tradition extending from the Sistine Chapel through Raphael's stanze and into the French academic tradition. The Petit Palais holds both prophet sketches as records of this important commission.

Delaunay renders Isaiah with the gravitas appropriate to the prophetic tradition — the figure composed for architectural scale, with a clear silhouette that would read across the interior space of the church. The sketchy handling establishes the essential pose and tonal structure that the finished mural would elaborate. Classical training is evident in the figure's noble bearing.