Christ on the Cross

In 1783, Andromache Mourning Hector was shown with about six other works at the Salon. One of these was the Christ on the Cross, painted for the Marshal de Noailles and his wife, Catherine Fran�oise Charlotte de Cosse-Brissac. Formerly a highly placed courtier with King Louis XV, and a military commander in the War of the Austrian Succession, Noailles was created a marshal of France in 1775, but had little influence at the court of the new king Louis XVI. Both he and his wife were devoutly religious. Noailles commissioned a series of religious works for the family chapel in the Capucines church in the Place Vend�me from David, Jean Charles-Nicaise Perrin and Joseph-Benoit Suv�e. David found such religious subjects uncongenial, and this was the last he ever painted.