Esquisse pour le Panthéon (église Sainte-Geneviève) : Gloire des dynasties royales et impériales devant sainte Geneviève

Antoine-Jean Gros's 1812 sketch for the Panthéon ceiling — depicting the glorification of French royal and imperial dynasties before Saint Geneviève, patron of Paris — was part of his major commission for the church that had been redesignated as a mausoleum for French heroes. The program brought together all French ruling dynasties from the Merovingians to Napoleon's Empire under the patronage of the local saint, constructing a continuous narrative of French national glory. The sketch reveals Gros working through the compositional challenges of a vast ceiling program, assembling the heavenly gathering with the confidence of a history painter trained in the Davidian tradition.

The sketch is worked in oil with energetic, gestural marks typical of preparatory work: forms are suggested rather than resolved, the key compositional relationships established without final detail. The vertical format of the sketch captures the ceiling's upward-rushing structure. Color notes indicate the final chromatic scheme.