id: 130163 accession number: 1952.542 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1952.542 updated: 2019-06-27 08:06:38.688000 Young Woman with a Turban, c. 1780. Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748-1825). Oil on canvas; framed: 76 x 66 x 8 cm (29 15/16 x 26 x 3 1/8 in.); unframed: 55.2 x 46 cm (21 3/4 x 18 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of George S. Kendrick 1952.542 title: Young Woman with a Turban title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1780 creation date earliest: 1775 creation date latest: 1785 current location: 216B French and German creditline: Gift of George S. Kendrick copyright: --- culture: France, 18th century technique: oil on canvas department: European Painting and Sculpture collection: P - French 18th Century type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748-1825) - artist The founder and leading painter of the neoclassical movement in France, Jacques-Louis David was born in Paris to a prosperous family of artists and archi-tects. In 1766 he entered the Académie Royale as the pupil of Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809). After several failed attempts, David won the Prix de Rome in 1774. The following year he left for Italy, where he studied antique art and envisioned replacing the frivolity of the rococo with an art of grandeur, simplicity, and moral virtue. After returning to Paris in 1780, he established his reputa-tion with three spectacular successes at the Salon: The Oath of the Horatii (1785, Musée du Louvre, Paris), The Death of Socrates (1787, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), and The Lictors Bring-ing Brutus the Bodies of His Sons (1789, Musée du Louvre, Paris). Widely interpreted as moral parables for contemporary political events, these archetypes of neoclassical aesthetics set the standard for academic painting of the next century. In the 1790s David joined the radical Jacobin Club and played an active role in the French Revolution. He allied himself with Robespierre, served a short term as president of the Convention, and voted for the execution of Louis XVI. He also placed his artistic talents at the service of the Revolution by creating paintings that glorified its martyrs and by organizing public festivals that celebrated the new political order. As the most prominent artist in the revolutionary ranks, he led the attack against the Académie Royale that culminated in its abolish-ment in 1793. When the excesses of the Reign of Terror precipitated the fall of Robespierre in 1794, David was imprison-ed but spared execution. Authorities released him the following year due to ill health. Around 1798 David developed a new alliance with the brilliant young general of the Directory, Napoléon Bonaparte. David's painting The Intervention of the Sabine Women (1799, Musée du Louvre, Paris) coalesced perfectly with Napoleonic propaganda urging national reconciliation. After the coup d'état of 1799, Napoléon was named first consul and began supplying David with important commissions. Upon Napoléon's coronation in 1804, David was appointed first painter to the emperor. David's monumental painting The Coronation of Napoléon, or Le Sacre (1805-7, Musée du Louvre, Paris), introduced a less spartan, more colorful and emotive style. However, as seen in his life-size portrait Napoléon in His Study (1812, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), David increasingly searched to balance this new heroic-romanticism with an exacting realism. In 1816, following Napoléon's defeat at Waterloo and the restoration of the monarchy, David went into exile in Belgium. He spent the last nine years of his life in Brussels, painting mostly mythological subjects and portraits. David died of a stroke in 1825 and was denied burial in France. --- measurements: Framed: 76 x 66 x 8 cm (29 15/16 x 26 x 3 1/8 in.); Unframed: 55.2 x 46 cm (21 3/4 x 18 1/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Baron Gros, Painter of Battles: The First Romantic Painter opening date: 1956-03-08T05:00:00 Baron Gros, Painter of Battles: The First Romantic Painter. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 8-April 15, 1956). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Paris, Palais des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris (Petit Palais). David et ses élèves (1913), no. 19, Tête de femme blonde, appartient à Mme Audard.
cma. French Art since Eighteen Hundred (1929), in CMA Bulletin 16 (1929): 159.
cma. Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art (1936), no. 267 (repr.), Mlle Dugarçon, Cleveland.
San Francisco, Golden Gate International Exposition. Masterworks of Five Centuries (1939), no. 111 (repr.), Mlle Dugarçon.
cma. Masterpieces of Art from the New York and San Francisco World's Fairs (1940), no. 9 (repr.), Mlle Dugarçon.
New York World's Fair. Catalogue of European & American Paintings 1500-1900: Masterpieces of Art (1940), no. 228, Portrait of Mlle Dugarçon, lent by estate of Henry G. Dalton, Cleveland.
New York, Century Association. Sculpture by Houdon-Paintings and Drawings by David (1947), no. 21 (repr.), Mlle Dugarçon of the Comédie Française.
Paris, Musée du Louvre; Musée National du Château de Versailles. Jacques-Louis David, 1748-1825 (1989-90), no. 45 (repr.), Jeune femme au turban. --- PROVENANCE Probably Paris sale, Didot collection, 6 April 1825 (lot 114), Tête d'expression. Ce buste de femme est une étude d'après nature que le Peintre avait faite pour représenter Andromaque, dans son grand tableau connu sous ce nom. L'expression de cette tête, dont le regard est levé vers le ciel, annonce la douleur; elle est coiffée d'une draperie blanche, son col est nu, et ses épaules sont recouvertes d'une draperie violette. Cette étude, peinte avec le plus grand soin, était si célèbre dans l'atelier du peintre, que ses plus habiles élèves ont voulu la copier. Il est sans doute inutile que nous fassions remarquer à MM. les Amateurs que ce tableau est l'original. h. 18 p., l. 21 p. [sic] t., ff 800. Baron Gros, Paris. His sale, Paris, 23 November-1 December 1835 (lot 127), Portrait d'une jeune femme de carnation, blonde, la tête ajustée d'un fichu d'étoffe blanchâtre. A l'agencement pittoresque de ce costume, à la fraîcheur de coloris, à la finesse des tons, plusieurs personnes ont pu penser que David, profond admirateur de tous les grands talens, aurait peint cette tête sous l'influente contemplation des ouvrages de Greuze. ff 495. Augustin Alexandre Dumont (1801-84). Mme Audard by 1913. Henry G. Dalton, Cleveland, by 1929. His grandson, George S. Kendrick, Cleveland. Given to the CMA in 1952. date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: Known as a tête d'expression or "Expressive Head," this painting represents an essential part of the academic training of history painters-artists who specialized in religious, mythological, or historical subjects. In 1760 such exercises became standard at the École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Paris. Focusing on the relationship between morality and beauty, the goal of a history painter is not only to present viewers a pleasing image, but also to elevate their moral standards by representing the emotions of the soul. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 164 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n188 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 202 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n222 Christie, Manson & Woods International Inc. "Lot 11 : Jacques-Louis David." Revolution, April 13, 2016: [46]-[51]. page number: Reproduced: p. [48], fig. 2 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1952.542/1952.542_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1952.542/1952.542_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1952.542/1952.542_full.tif