The Passage of Souls

This is the second in a series of thirty-four illustrations composed by the Catholic activist and artist Louis Janmot between 1835 and 1881. The artwork inspired the development of his accompanying poetic text called The Poem of the Soul that ties together with over two thousand verses the meaning behind the ensemble of eighteen finished paintings and sixteen charcoal drawings. The mystical epic is unique in its viewer-reader presentation, showing the human soul generated by God and watched over by an angelic guardian as it passes through the joys and trials of life, through sin and redemption, to final resolution in the happiness of heaven.