Jésus au jardin des oliviers

This 1837 Jesus in the Garden of Olives at the Louvre depicts Christ's anguished prayer before his arrest—the Agony in the Garden, when Jesus asks that the cup be taken from him while his disciples sleep. Painted when Chassériau was eighteen, this early religious work demonstrates his already remarkable facility with the demanding subject of divine suffering. The garden setting, night atmosphere, and the contrast between Christ's solitary wakefulness and the disciples' sleeping figures offered Chassériau opportunity for the atmospheric light effects and psychological intensity he was developing under Ingres while absorbing the color lessons of Delacroix. He would return to the same subject with a more mature treatment in 1844.

The Agony in the Garden is rendered with the combination of classical figure drawing and romantic emotional intensity that would characterize Chassériau's mature approach to religious subjects.