The painting by Jacques Stella representing “Jesus Found in the Temple by His Parents” : painted around 1642, it has been listed as a historic monument since 1912.
For a long time, it was attributed to the painter Eustache Le Sueur, but in 1981 it was identified as the work of painter Jacques Stella (1596–1657). It was later exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon and at the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse in 2006 and 2007.
The work is part of a series of five paintings on the same theme, created for the Jesuit novitiate in the Faubourg Saint Germain in Paris.
These paintings are now located at the Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame des Andelys, the church of Fos, the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon, the Sainte-Lydwine Church in Utrecht (Netherlands), and the Sainte-Ayoul Church in Provins. (France).
Stella, originally from Lyon, settled in Florence, a major artistic hub at the time.
Upon his return to France, he was noticed by Cardinal Richelieu and then by King Louis XIII, who appointed him official painter to the king and his court.
He carried out commissions and created decorations for royal residences and chapels (such as the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Louvre Palace, etc.) and for powerful families.
In 1772, the Cardinal’s grandnephew, Louis-François-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu and Governor of Guyenne, offered the painting to the de Lassus family, who received it at their residence in Montréjeau.
A direct descendant of the de Lassus family, Modeste Doniez, born in Fos in 1769, was mayor of Fos from 1816 to 1830 and again from 1848 to 1851.
He inherited the painting and donated it to the church of Fos.
The painting, which belongs to the commune of Fos, is currently on display at the treasury of Saint-Béat.
Avenir du passé 