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Saint John the Baptist Preaching in the Desert

Jean Baptiste Henri Deshays (French, 1729–1765)

c. 1758–64

Medium: Oil on canvas
Classification: Painting
Dimensions: 42.2 × 26.5 cm (16 5/8 × 10 7/16 in.); Framed: 59.4 × 44.3 × 7.4 cm (23 3/8 × 17 7/16 × 2 7/8 in.)
Culture: France
Museum: Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Credit line: Gift of Mrs. Eugene A. Davidson
Rights: Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

About this work

A precocious talent, Jean-Baptiste Deshays married Rococo artist François Boucher’s daughter and became his father-in-law’s protégé. Although best known as a painter of religious subjects, Deshays often employed the soft, highly fluid manner that Boucher used for his amorous “boudoir” pictures. In fact, this work was for a long time believed to be by Boucher. The subject of the painting derives from the Gospel of Matthew: Seated before the multitude with his arms dramatically outstretched, John the Baptist warns, “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”