Assumption of the Virgin

Charles-Joseph Natoire · c. 1751-1775

Medium

Black chalk and brush and brown and gray wash, with pen and brown ink, heightened with white gouache on cream laid paper, laid down on cream laid card

Original size

47.4 × 19.5 cm (18 11/16 × 7 11/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Baroque

Natoire's *Assumption of the Virgin* is a luminous devotional study, its layered washes and white gouache highlights giving the composition an almost ethereal glow that suggests both heavenly ascent and the quiet intensity of a private vision. Charles-Joseph Natoire was one of the most celebrated French Rococo masters of his generation, winning the Prix de Rome in 1721 and later serving as director of the French Academy in Rome from 1751 — the very period this work was produced. His draughtsmanship was exceptionally refined, and this piece showcases his ability to build depth and atmosphere through transparent washes rather than relying on linear precision alone, lending the figure of Mary a soft, weightless grace. Natoire spent his final decades in Rome increasingly devoted to drawing and watercolour studies, and works from this period carry a meditative quality distinct from his earlier decorative commissions, including the celebrated Psyche panels at the Hôtel de Soubise in Paris. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates Natoire's delicate tonal range into a richly textured medium, preserving the devotional tenderness of the original while giving the composition a new warmth and presence suited to display in any space.