Saint John the Baptist Preaching in the Desert

A seminude bearded man with a staff gestures emphatically while seated on a rocky outcrop, his arm raised toward a cloud. Cherubs hover above, and a crowd of figures in turbans and draped fabric listens in the foreground. Loose, sketchy brushwork in warm flesh tones and stormy blue-grey sky suggests an oil study of a sermon in the wilderness.

Artist

Jean Baptiste Henri Deshays

Date

c. 1758–64

Medium

Oil on canvas

Source

Art Institute of Chicago

Size

843 × 1364 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Mrs. Eugene A. Davidson