Soult Immaculate Conception

The "Soult Immaculate Conception" is a painting by the Spanish Baroque artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, created around 1678. It depicts the Immaculate Conception, a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church proclaimed in 1854. This doctrine states that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was preserved free from original sin from the moment of her conception. Murillo was a prominent religious painter in 17th-century Spain, often commissioned by religious orders. This particular painting was taken to France by Marshal Nicolas-Jean de Dieu Soult during the Napoleonic period, hence its name.1