Jean-Charles GESLIN
 (Paris, 1814 – Paris, 1887)

 Paestum: the ruins of the temple of Neptune (or second temple of Hera)
 Oil on canvas
 Signed and dated lower left
 40 x 49 cm
 July 1845

 A meritorious artist and distinguished scholar, Jean-Charles GESLIN, born in Paris on March 13, 1814, entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1830 at the age of fifteen and a half. Naturally preferring painting, his parents nevertheless forced him to enter the studio of the architect Callet. After two years working on the subject, Geslin managed to convince his parents to let him study painting and when he was accepted at the school, he entered Picot's studio. Alongside his creative effervescence, Geslin had since begun to devote his leisure time to archaeology.
 The year 1841 marked his first participation in the Salon with a view of the apse of the Abbey of Saint-Denis. On the advice of his artistic entourage, Geslin then chose to continue his studies in Italy. He spent three years there between Rome, Pompeii and Paestum where he worked hard for seventeen days in a row in 1844. Geslin, seduced by the majestic beauty of the then little-known ruins, decided to take a certain number of views of them, including most probably ours.
 On his return from Italy, he sent a view of the Roman Forum to the 1845 Salon, which was noticed and earned him a third-class gold medal.
 Considered at the time as one of the best architectural painters, Geslin then founded his preparatory drawing course for the Government Schools which had famous students such as de Lesseps, Daubrée, Fould…
 From 1850, his art evolved, taking on a more decorative bent and the artist then received a good number of public commissions which kept him busy until the Second Empire.
 A notable event of this period was that in 1863, Geslin agreed to join the Louvre as an inspector in the antiques department in order to participate in the project of installing the Campana collection at the museum.
 Jean-Charles Geslin died on August 7, 1887 after having devoted his last strength to classifying his numerous collections and making catalogs of them.

 The Greek city of Poseidonia was born in the middle of the 7th century BC and developed remarkably. In 273 BC it was conquered by Rome, and became a Latin colony, under the name of Paestum. The city prospered until the 1st century AD, then gradually declined. Depopulated by malaria, it was destroyed by the Saracens in 877.
 This archaeological site owes its fame today to the three temples built by Greek colonists and which have survived in a very good state of preservation. The site has been the subject of regular excavations since the end of the 18th century.
 The Temple of Neptune (or second Temple of Hera), which interests us here, was built in 450 BC next to a first temple dedicated to Hera already existing on the site but of a more archaic architecture. It is approximately 25 meters wide by 60 meters long and was built on the model of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.
 Our painting offers us a slightly low-angle view of the interior of this great temple. Surprisingly, this viewpoint would be taken almost identically several decades later by the Florentine photographer Giacomo Brogi (1822-1881).