Among 19th century historians, Jean Paul Laurens stands out as most sensitive to the influences of the "Revival", a romantic period infused with a spirit of enthusiasm, a taste for the dramatic and a predilection for free thinking. If we accept that, as Augustin Thierry said, it is "in the truthful portrayal of local colour that the essence of history resides", we may then venture to say that this is what the painter strove to achieve in his work.
The work of Laurens can sometimes be considered a pictorial equivalent of Jules Michelet's tenet "history is resurrection" and his is indeed a vibrant and tangible resurrection of the past. Laurens is still recognised as one of the painters who brought the past to life with most vigour (Saint John Chrysostom and the Empress Eudoxie).
Likewise an anticlerical, Michelet was first to look for ways of rehabilitating the victims of the Church, and, in particular, the Albigensians depicted in a number of paintings.
One can also surmise that he was indirectly influenced by some of the most famous historians of his time. These included Ernest Renan, a proponent of rationalism and known for his treatise "The origins of Christianity" (1863) in which he makes an audacious attempt to reconcile critical thought and religion. A secular painter who often portrayed religious subjects, Laurens was faced with an identical challenge. Another influence was Fustel de Coulanges with his "History of the institutions of Ancient France" (1875) in which he analyses the barbarian invasions that gave rise to the Frankish dynasty, so often illustrated by Laurens after he painted "The Death of Saint Genevieve". In his portrayal of these interpenetrating civilisations, he understates the Germanic influences while exalting the Latin substratum of France.
However, the work of Laurens is most intimately linked with that of the historian Augustin Thierry. Not only was Laurens inspired by his writings on the Normans, which brought forth paintings such as "The Funeral of William the Conqueror" (1876), he was first and foremost the master illustrator of "Episodes from Merovingian History" in the new edition of 1887.
In his portrayals of the rivalries between the sons of Chlotar I, he reconstructs the rich narrative of the dynastic conflicts that raged among the last of the Frankish royal line at the end of the sixth century. With incredible fidelity and graphic ingenuity, he created forty-two illustrations of the most vivid passages of a text that has become one of the great classics of French historiography.
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