Le Bon Samaritain

This 1837 Good Samaritan (Le Bon Samaritain) at the Louvre depicts the parable of compassionate charity, one of Christ's most famous moral teachings. The young Chassériau brings his emerging synthesis of classical form and romantic feeling to this narrative of mercy and human solidarity. Chassériau's oil technique combined Ingres's sculptural clarity of contour with Delacroix's warm Venetian colorism, creating works of unusual poetic power that influenced Gustave Moreau and later Symbolist paint

The Samaritan's act of mercy is rendered with warm, compassionate coloring and precise figure drawing, the physical contact between rescuer and wounded man conveying the parable's message of universal human charity.