id: 170727 accession number: 2013.249 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2013.249 updated: 2024-03-26 02:01:35.889000 Phryne before Her Judges, c. 1816–20. Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825). Black chalk on wove paper discolored to beige; sheet: 13.3 x 19.6 cm (5 1/4 x 7 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift in memory of Helen Borowitz 2013.249 title: Phryne before Her Judges title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1816–20 creation date earliest: 1816 creation date latest: 1820 current location: creditline: Gift in memory of Helen Borowitz copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: black chalk on wove paper discolored to beige department: Drawings collection: DR - French type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: Rosenberg and Prat 351 --- 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: Sheet: 13.3 x 19.6 cm (5 1/4 x 7 11/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: medium-weight, wove paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: inscribed, upper right, in black chalk: L. David Brux. translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS 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). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Master Drawings. Covent Garden Gallery (Adolphe Stein), London (March 9–April 6, 1977).', 'opening_date': '1977-04-06T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE (Adolphe Stein, Paris) date: 1977 footnotes: citations: Helen [1929–2012] and Albert [b. 1930] Borowitz, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: by 1987-2013 footnotes: citations: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2013- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Cantaloube, A. "Les Dessins de Louis David," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 7 (September 1860): 285-303. page number: Mentioned: p. 302, no. 14 url: David, J. L. Jules. Le Peintre Louis David, 1748–1825: Souvenirs & documents inédits . 2 vols. Paris: Havard, 1880. page number: Mentioned: vol. 1, p. 664 url: Master Drawings. Exh. cat. London: Adolphe Stein, 1977. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: no. 31 url: Schnapper, Antoine and Arlette Sérullaz. Jacques-Louis David, 1748-1825. Exh. Cat. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 1989. page number: Mentioned: pp. 189, 548 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. I, p. 326, no. 351 url: Prat, Louis-Antoine. Le Dessin français au XIXe siècle. Paris: Louvre Éditions, 2012. page number: Mentioned: p. 65 url: David, Jacques Louis, and Perrin Stein. Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman. 2022, 252. page number: Reproduced; p. 252, No. 80 url: Stein, Perrin. Jacques-Louis David: Radical Draftsman, 252 (ill.), 256, no. 80. Exh. cat. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022. page number: Mentioned: p. 256, no. 80; Reproduced: p. 252 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2013.249/2013.249_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2013.249/2013.249_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2013.249/2013.249_full.tif