The Childhood of Saint Genevieve

In the horizontal composition, many figures in white and blue robes gather, with mountains in the distance and a river and boat in the foreground. The colors are pale, and the figures are arranged flatly like a mural. It is an oil painting, 52.0 cm high by 102.3 cm wide.

According to the Shimane Art Museum, this is a reduced version of a mural painted as part of the decoration of the Church of Sainte-Genevieve in Paris, now the Pantheon. At Nanterre, outside Paris, the girl Genevieve, who would become the patron saint of Paris, is noticed by Saint Germanus, who tells her of her life as a saint.

Every gaze and movement is arranged to converge on the meeting of the two saints: the startled parents, the sick being carried out, a boat nearing the shore, and a farm woman who has paused in her milking to watch. The composition uses the technique of keeping the heads at the same height to unify the group in an orderly way, and when the mural was shown at the Pantheon in 1878 it drew a great response.