L'Agitateur du Languedoc - Jean-Paul Laurens

Jean-Paul Laurens's L'Agitateur du Languedoc (1887) depicts a figure from the history of southern French religious dissent — the 'agitator' a Protestant or Cathar rebel from the Languedoc's long tradition of religious resistance to Catholic authority, from the medieval Cathar heresy through the Huguenot wars. Laurens was the leading French historical painter of his generation after Cabanel's death, famous for dramatically researched canvases of medieval and early modern subjects. The Musée des Augustins in Toulouse is an appropriate home for a work concerning the religious history of the south.

Laurens composes the figure with the dramatic clarity of a master storyteller — the agitator's posture and expression communicating conviction and defiance without explanatory text. His historical period costume and setting are carefully researched, and his tonal drama creates the kind of theatrical impact that made such works successful at the Salon.