id: 147526
accession number: 1973.36
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.36
updated: 2024-03-26 01:59:34.606000
The Prisoner, c. 1816–22. Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825). Black chalk on cream laid paper; sheet: 13.1 x 19.6 cm (5 3/16 x 7 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1973.36
title: The Prisoner
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: c. 1816–22
creation date earliest: 1816
creation date latest: 1822
current location:
creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
copyright:
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culture: France, 19th century
technique: black chalk on cream laid paper
department: Drawings
collection: DR - French
type: Drawing
find spot:
catalogue raisonne: Rosenberg and Prat 393
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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.
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measurements: Sheet: 13.1 x 19.6 cm (5 3/16 x 7 11/16 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
description: cream(3) laid paper
watermarks:
inscriptions:
inscription: inscribed, at upper left, in black chalk: L. David, Brux.; inscribed, on an old support, now removed: 1 des. de L. David.
translation:
remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Year in Review: 1973
opening date: 1974-01-30T05:00:00
Year in Review: 1973. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-March 17, 1974).
title: The Lessons of the Academy
opening date: 1983-02-08T05:00:00
The Lessons of the Academy. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 8-May 29, 1983).
title: Treasures on Paper
opening date: 1988-05-10T04:00:00
Treasures on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-July 24, 1988).
title: Jacques-Louis David
opening date: 1989-10-26T04:00:00
Jacques-Louis David. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (October 26, 1988-February 12, 1989); Musée National de Château de Versailles, 78 008 Versailles cedex, France (October 26, 1988-February 12, 1989).
title: Directions in Drawing II: The Human Figure
opening date: 1991-11-05T05:00:00
Directions in Drawing II: The Human Figure. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1991-January 12, 1992).
title: French Drawings from the Collection
opening date: 1994-12-13T05:00:00
French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995).
title: Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile
opening date: 2005-02-01T00:00:00
Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (February 1-April 24, 2005); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA (organizer) (June 5-September 5, 2005).
title: Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman
opening date: 2022-02-17T05:00:00
Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (February 14-May 15, 2022) https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2022/jacques-louis-david-radical-draftsman.
title: Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 2023-01-20T05:00:00
Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-April 30, 2023).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* {'description': 'Old Master Drawings Presented by Adolphe Stein and Lorna Lowe. H. Terry-Engell Gallery, London (July 3 - 15, 1972).', 'opening_date': '1972-07-03T00:00:00'}
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PROVENANCE
(sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, February 9, 1972, no. 13 bis, sold to Adolphe Stein, Paris and London)
date: 1972
footnotes:
citations:
(Adolphe Stein, Paris and London, sold to Eugene V. Thaw, New York)
date: 1972
footnotes:
citations:
(Eugene V. Thaw, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
date: 1972 - 1973
footnotes:
citations:
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1973-
footnotes:
citations:
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fun fact:
digital description:
wall description:
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Sérullaz, Arlette. “A propos de quelques dessins de Jacques-Louis David pour ‘Mars désarmé́ par Vénus et les Grâces.’” Bulletin des musées royaux des beaux-arts de Belgique 21, nos. 1–4 (1972): 107-116.
page number: Mentioned: p. 107n2
url:
Dessins, aquarelles, pastels, gouaches [. . .] tableaux anciens et du XIXe siècle. Paris: Hôtel Drouot, 1972.
page number: Mentioned: no. 13 bis
url:
Old Master Drawings Presented by Adolphe Stein and Lorna Lowe. Exh. Cat. London: H. Terry-Engell Gallery, 1972.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 9, no. 74
url:
Nash, Steven A. “The Drawings of Jacques-Louis David: Selected Problems.” PhD diss., Stanford University, 1973.
page number: Mentioned: p. 241, n. 439
url:
Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1973." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 2 (February 1974): 31-78.
page number: Mentioned: p. 75, no. 65; Reproduced: p. 46
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25152513
Coekelberghs, Denis and Pierre Loze. Autour du néo-classicisme en belgique, 1770–1830. Exh. cat. Brussels: Musée Communal des Beaux-Arts d’Ixelles, 1985.
page number: Mentioned: pp. 28, 189, no. 148
url:
Schnapper, Antoine and Arlette Sérullaz. Jacques-Louis David, 1748–1825. Exh. cat. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 1989.
page number: Mentioned: p. 106, no. 245; Reproduced: p. 554
url:
Noël, Bernard. David. New York: Crown, 1989.
page number: Reproduced: p. 48
url:
Johnson, Dorothy. Jacques-Louis David: Art in Metamorphosis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.
page number: Mentioned: pp. 231-33; Reproduced: p. 232
url:
Johnson, Dorothy. Jacques-Louis David: The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis.. Los Angeles: Getty Museum, 1997.
page number: Mentioned: pp. 30-31; Reproduced: p. 30
url:
Lajer-Burcharth, Ewa. Necklines: The Art of Jacques-Louis David after the Terror. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999.
page number: Mentioned: p. 324, n. 94
url:
Rosenberg, Pierre and Louis-Antoine Prat. Jacques-Louis David, 1748–1825: Catalogue raisonné des dessins. Milan: Leonardo Arte, 2002.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: vol. 1, p. 352, no. 393
url:
Bordes, Philippe. Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile. Exh. cat. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2005.
page number: Mentioend: p. 284, no. 43; Reproduced: p. 285
url:
Johnson, Dorothy. “Lines of Thought: David’s Aporetic Late Drawings.". In David after David, edited by Mark Ledbury. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007.
page number: Mentioned: p. 160
url:
Padiyar, Satish. “Dispossessed: On ‘Late’ David." In David after David, edited by Mark Ledbury. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 310
url:
Prat, Louis-Antoine. Le Dessin français au XIXe siècle. Paris: Louvre Editions, 2012.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 65
url:
Crow, Thomas E. Restoration: The Fall of Napoleon in the Course of European Art, 1812–1820. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018.
page number: Reproduced and mentioned: p. 139
url:
David, Jacques Louis, and Perrin Stein. Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman. 2022, 253.
page number: Reproduced; p. 253, No. 81.
url:
Stein, Perrin. Jacques-Louis David: Radical Draftsman. Exh. cat. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 253, no. 81, 258
url:
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.36/1973.36_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.36/1973.36_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.36/1973.36_full.tif