Jacques Clément Preparing to Assassinate King Henri III

This painting by **François Marius Granet**, held at the Louvre, depicts the Dominican monk **Jacques Clément** in the moments before his act, at the château of Saint-Cloud, on 1 August 1589. Composed and resolute, the young religious prepares to commit the act that would end the reign of Henri III and the direct Valois dynasty, convinced he was avenging the assassination of the Duke and Cardinal of Guise the previous year. Painted in the nineteenth century, the work emphasises the psychological and religious dimension of the act rather than its violence, in keeping with history painting's taste for the inner motivations of past protagonists.