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The painting Telemachus Defeats his Opponent at the Cretan Games from the collection of the Royal Castle in Warsaw – Museum has long remained an unrecognized work in Jean-Pierre Norblin’s œuvre. Painted in 1771, it is a vestige of an attempt by the young artist, who had just learned that he had been rejected from the École Royale des Elèves Protégés, a school which prepared the best students of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris to attend the French Academy in Rome. This rejection was the result of the school’s reorganization. The article presents the hypothesis that Norblin attempted to convince two highly placed academic officials – Charles Natoire (1700–1777) and Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (1704–1778) – of his talent and readiness to continue his studies in Rome. Natoire, director of the French Academy in Rome from 1751 to 1775, received a small battle painting. Lemoyne, rector of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture from 1768–1778, received the painting Telemachus De)feats his Opponent at the Cretan Games. The article discusses the sources and arguments for the presented hypothesis, in the light of which the painting Telemachus Defeats his Opponent at the Cretan Games was an important work in Norblin’s artistic career, although it probably did not meet the expectations of the painter himself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]