ALISON HOKANSON: My name is Alison Hokanson and I work in the Department of European Paintings. We are looking at Jules Bastien-Lepage's painting of the medieval teenage martyr, Joan of Arc, one of France's most beloved national heroines.

KEITH CHRISTIANSEN: The year is 1424, when the twelve-year-old peasant girl first began experiencing her visions of saints. Catherine, Margaret, and Michael are depicted at left. They instructed her to take up arms and to rescue France from British invaders during the Hundred Years War. Dressed in male garb and armed like a knight, Joan’s feats have become the stuff of legend.

Bastien-Lepage wanted to give his depiction of Joan a quality of verisimilitude.

ALISON HOKANSON: He wrote to a friend, "I believe that I found the head of my Joan of Arc. Everyone thinks that she beautifully expresses the resolution to leave her home, while still retaining an entirely naïve peasant charm.” And, in fact, when this painting debuted at the Salon of 1880, many critics agreed that the figure of Joan was supremely convincing.

Now, Bastien-Lepage has clearly invested a lot of attention in the background. But critics found all the lush foliage distracting and they also criticized the make-believe element of the saints. Nonetheless, this vivid naturalness that Bastien-Lepage brought to his religious subject made the painting a watershed in his career.