Édouard Brandon: A Jewish Painter in Nineteenth-Century Rome

The painter Édouard Brandon (1831–97) is little known today, but in the nineteenth century hemoved in the premier artistic circles of Paris. Those who are familiar with his mature work may think of synagogue interiors or of genre scenes featuring rabbis. Earlier in his life, however, Brandon’s primary output was Catholic in subject matter, and that is the focus of this paper. He spent 1856–63 in Rome developing an extensive cycle of paintings on Saint Bridget of Sweden. These works remained important throughout his career but were provocative in some