Nicolas Frosté (1790-1856) A Condemned Man Receiving His Sentence – Inquisition Scene

Nicolas Sébastien FROSTÉ
(Paris 1790 - Odessa 1856)
A condemned man receiving his sentence - Inquisition Scene
Oil on canvas
H. 58 cm; L. 69 cm

Exhibition :
1826, Exhibition for the benefit of the Greeks, Galerie Lebrun, Paris, n°65
1827, Paris Salon, exhibited under n°421. Registration number 737 (visible on the frame)
1829, Salon de Douai, under n°155
1829 (December), Exhibition at the Colbert Museum, n°11
1830 (February), Exhibition at the Colbert Museum, n°106

Student of Prud'hon, Nicolas Frosté seems to have trained in Parisian workshops during the first years of the Empire. He developed his style following the great neoclassics like Girodet, using historical and mythological themes. In 1822, he presented a large painting now preserved in the Saint-Etienne church in Toulouse, representing the death of this saint. From 1812, he exhibited portraits and genre scenes at the Salon until 1831. These works are today kept in numerous French museums and churches, such as the Val de Grace, the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, the Saint-Louis Cathedral of Versailles, etc. Our painting, as the exhibition description demonstrates, made its first outing in Paris in 1826 at the Galerie Lebrun, then at the Salon of 1827 before moving to three different exhibition spaces in 1829 and 1830 between Douai and Paris. Did he find a buyer following these exhibitions? The subject is explicit. In 1827, the Salon catalog gives us a few sentences: “This small painting, which departs from the genre that Mr. Frosté has followed until now, shows the flexibility of his brush. The expression of concentrated despair and rage imprinted on the features and in the attitude of the condemned add to the terror inspired by the mere sight of a member of the infamous tribunal of the inquisition. ".