Transcript The Art of Jacques-Louis David Self-Portraitoil on canvas 32” x 25” Museé du Louvre • • • Many artists paint their “portrait of the artist as artist.”

The Art of
Jacques-Louis David
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Self-Portrait
1794
oil on canvas
32” x 25”
Museé du Louvre
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Many artists paint their “portrait of the artist as artist.” The tradition can be traced back to
the 15th century, though it becomes more vogue in the 17th c. and beyond.
Q 1.1: Why do you think artists like this particular content for their self-portrait?
Q 1.2: Based on what you know of David’s (1748 - 1825) facial disfigurement, does it
surprise you that his self-portrait appears thus?
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Antiochus and Stratonice
1774
oil on canvas
47 1/4” x 61”
École Nationale Supériere
des Beaux-Arts
It was with this painting that David, after five failed attempts leading to his total despondency,
won the Prix de Rome.
• Q 2.1: What story does the painting tell?
• Q 2.2: How does the painting reveal David’s superior technical abilities, and does it do so
in a pandering way?
• Q 2.3: In your opinon, what is the greatest strength of this painting? What is its greatest
weakness?
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Oath of the Horatii
1784
oil on canvas
11’ x 14’
Museé du Louvre
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Q 3.1: What is the narrative of this painting? Why is this story so compelling?
Q 3.2: How would you describe David’s style in this painting?
Q 3.3: The composition of this painting is balanced. How does David achieve this?
Q 3.4: What response is this painting designed to elicit from its audience?
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The Oath of the Horatii
(detail)
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Death of Socrates
1787
oil on canvas
51” x 77.25”
Museé du Louvre
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Q 5.1: Who is Socrates? Why does he make an appropriate main character in this
painting?
Q 5.2: What is/are the focal point(s) of this painting? Why are they significant?
Q 5.3: What virtues are being espoused by David in this painting? How does he achieve
that?
Q 5.4: What effect does light play in telling the narrative of this painting?
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The Lictors Bring to Brutus
the Bodies of His Sons
1789
oil on canvas
127 1/4” x 166 1/4”
Museé du Louvre
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Q 6.1: Who is Brutus? Why does he make an appropriate main character in this painting?
Q 6.2: What is/are the focal point(s) of this painting? Why are they significant?
Q 6.3: What virtues are being espoused by David in this painting? How does he achieve
that?
Q 6.4: What effect does light play in telling the narrative of this painting?
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The Lictors Delivering to
Brutus the Bodies of His
Sons (detail)
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The Lictors Delivering to
Brutus the Bodies of His
Sons (detail)
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The Oath of the Tennis
Court
1791
pen and rown ink, brown
wash with white highlights
26” x 40”
Musée National du
Chateau de Versailles,
Versailles, France
Read a brief history of the Tennis Court Oath.
• Q 9.1: What is the tone of David’s drawing? How does he achieve this effect?
Clergy (Second Estate)
Robespierre [Justification on Use of Terror]
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Death of Marat
1793
oil on canvas
65” x 50.5”
Museés Royaux des
Beaux-Arts de Belgique
Baudeliare wrote of this
painting: “This is the bread of
the strong and triumph of
spiritualism; as cruel as nature,
this painting is redolent of the
Ideal. […] There is, in this
work, something at once
tender and poignant; in the
cold air of this room, on these
cold walls, around this cold
and funereal bathtub, a soul
flutters […]”
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Arguably one of the most important paintings in the history of art, David denies us a
background.
Q 10.1: What is the effect of only this shadowed background?
Q 10.2: What details does David include to tell the story of the assassination of Marat?
Q 10.3: What response does this painting evoke from you? Is this the response you think
David would have wanted you to have?
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The Sabine Women
1796 - 99
oil on canvas
12’8” x 17’8”
Museé du Louvre
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The Sabine Women was displayed in David’s home where it could be seen for a fee, 1.8
francs per person. In its original setting, it was meant to be viewed in a mirror, thus
allowing you, the audience, to appear in the painting. Q 11.1: What would the effect be of
seeing oneself in this scene (just over the right shoulder of the central female figure?
Q 11.2: Why did David paint the men nude and the women in diaphanous clothing?
Q 11.3 What is the narrative of this painting?
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The Sabine Women
(detail)
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The Sabine Women
(detail)
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Bonaparte
1798
oil on canvas
32” x 25.5”
Museé du Louvre
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Napoleon Bonaparte becomes the leader of the French Republic after which he crowns
himself Emperor of the new French Empire.
Q 14.1: How does David paint Napoleon? What traits of personality seem evident in the
portrait of Napoleon?
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Madame Recamier
1800
oil on canvas
96” x 30”
Museé du Louvre
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Madame Recamier is a Parisian socialite who desperately wanted David to paint her
portrait after his success with The Sabine Women. At this point, David is something of a
celebrity himself.
Q 15.1: What deviations from Madame Recamier’s natural appearance does David make
and why does he make them?
Q 15.2: From what era in history does Madame Recamier appear to be?
Q 15.3: What aspects of this portrait are scandalous?
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Madame Recamier (detail)
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Consecration of the
Emperor Napoleon I and
Coronation of the
Empress Josephine in the
Cathedral of Notre-Dame
de Paris on 2 Dec 1804
1807
oil on canvas
20’ x 32’
Museé du Louvre
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Notice the scale of this painting.
Q 17.1: What are the challenges that David faced in painting this scene?
Q 17.2: What accuracies are presented, and what inaccuracies are presented in the
scene?
Q 17.3: What is the moment that David, in an almost photographic fashion, capture? [See
next slide (9) for detail.]
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Consecration (detail)
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General Bonaparte in His
Study
1812
oil on canvas
80” x 49”
National Gallery,
Washington, D.C.
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Q 19.1: Compare this portrait of Bonaparte with the earlier, unfinished David portrait. In
what ways does Napoleon appear different here?
Key Concepts
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David is considered by art historians a “Neo-Classicist,” meaning he draws on
the imagery, narratives, and styles of ancient Greece and Rome.
David’s Neo-Classicist style is seen in the “stoic” paintings (e.g. Oath of the
Horatii, Death of Socrates) as well as the more expressive, though still quite
severe, works (e.g. The Sabine Women, Death of Marat, Madame Recamier).
David’s art is art that very much follows the politics of his day–one might see him
as an opportunist, as one sees him as “First Painter” of the Empire.
David is the beginning of the modern styles that will ultimately create the Modern
styles of the 20th century, insofar as he denied the styles of the late Baroque
and Rococo, despite his being a student of Boucher.