Celebrated for his great academic paintings of historical, mythological, and Orientalist subjects, Jean-Léon Gérôme is less known for his pictures of religious themes. Yet in 1858 Pope Pius IX commissioned Gérôme to decorate the ceiling of the papal railroad car; Gérôme’s designs for the ceiling included, at one end, a painting of God the Father, for which this chalk study is preparatory. The looseness of the drawing reveals a refreshingly nonacademic side of Gérôme. Gazing directly at the viewer, chin in hand in an intensely philosophical pose, Gérôme’s God the Father is introspective, almost human. This is not a God motivated by wrath or impulse—as in countless Renaissance depictions—but rather one who is deeply meditative and intellectual.