About

Fallen Angel (officially The Fallen Angel, French: L’Ange déchu) is a 1847 painting by French artist Alexandre Cabanel that portrays the rage of the fallen angel Lucifer after being cast out of Heaven by God.

Origin

Cabanel painted Fallen Angel in 1847 as an academic painting to show his progress to the École des beaux-arts in Paris. The painting depicts an idealized nude male angel, Lucifer, enraged after being expelled from Heaven because he rebelled against God due to his pride (shown below). He lies on the ground, symbolizing Earth, and hides the lower half of his face with his arm. His head is raised; he looks to the heavens with furrowed brows and redness around his eyes. A tear falls from his right eye. His hands are clasped, his muscles are flexed and tense, and his wings are discolored. Joyous clothed angels fly in the background.^[1] It is housed at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier, France.

Spread

According to Google Trends, search interest in "The Fallen Angel (Painting by Alexandre Cabanel)" began to rise in January 2018.^[2][3][4] General interest in the painting increased greatly in 2020. A trend emerged on TikTok starting^[5] in at least 2020 of people recreating Lucifer's stare towards the heavens.

On January 4, 2021, YouTube channel The Canvas posted^[6] a video discussing the Fallen Angel painting which garnered more than 700,000 views over three years. Wikipedia entries for Fallen Angel were created in Arabic^[7] on May 23, 2021, in French^[8] on 10 July, 2021, and in English^[9] on 16 September, 2022.

External References