ATELIER DE JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID - photo 1
ATELIER DE JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID - photo 2
ATELIER DE JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID - photo 3

ATELIER DE JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID

Lot 88
26.03.2025 15:00UTC +01:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationFrance, Paris
ID 1389990
Lot 88 | ATELIER DE JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID
Estimate value
€ 20 000 – 30 000
ATELIER DE JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID
Trois soldats nus casqués avec épées et boucliers
dédicacé ‘David a Ses amis crucÿ frères.’ (en bas à droite, à la plume et encre brune)
graphite, estompe, craie blanche, mis au carreau au graphite
58,1 x 40,5 cm (22 7/8 x 16 in.)




Provenance

Marque du monteur ‘ARD’ (L.172).
M. Forestier ; probablement sa vente, Paris, 22 novembre 1825, lot 31 ‘Première pensée de la composition du Serment des Horaces. Dessin au crayon noir et légèrement rehaussé de blanc. Il porte au bas ces mots dédicacés de la main de M. David : David à ces amis de Coucy Frères’.
Madame de Montcalm, Montpellier (selon une inscription, verso).
M. de Caiëu, puis par descendance, jusqu’en 1915, d’où acquis par
Charles Bignon, Abbeville, 1915, puis par descendance aux propriétaires actuels.



Literature

A. Sérullaz, A. Schnapper, David, Paris, 1990, sous le n° 69.
P. Rosenberg, L.-A. Prat, Jacques-Louis David. Catalogue raisonné des dessins, Milan, 2002, II, p. 1226 (liste des catalogues de ventes consultés où figurent des dessins de David).



Further details

THREE SOLDIERS IN HELMETS WITH SWORDS AND SHIELDS, BLACK AND WHITE CHALK, STUMP, SQUARED IN BLACK CHALK, SIGNED

Two previously unpublished drawings by the workshop of Jacques-Louis David for one of most important history paintings
These two large, squared-up cartoons are related to one of Jacques-Louis David's (1748-1825) most famous history paintings in the Musée du Louvre (inv. no. 3692), The Rape of the Sabine Women (fig.1). Specifically, they depict the group of warriors grouped behind Hersilie. The figures show numerous varations from the final painting, which is entirely in keeping with his artistic creation for his large history paintings, as David never stopped turning, flipping, compressing or rearranging each group of figures.

The provenance of the works, or the friendship between artists
One of the two studies (lot 88) is dedicated in David's hand at bottom right to his friends, the architect Mathurin Crucy (1749-1826) and his brother, Louis. Mathurin, one of David's classmates, stayed in Rome with David until 1779 and was awarded the Grand Prix d'Architecture in 1774, while Louis, a pupil of Vien (1716-1809), left for Rome at the same time as his brother and stayed until 1784. Friends in more ways than one, David and Mathurin Crucy were both Freemasons by the end of the 1780s (A. Boime, ‘David et la Franc-Maçonnerie’, in David contre David, Paris, 1993, I., p. 261). As Perrin Stein explains, the fact that David offered these drawings to his friends was not unusual and other examples are known. For instance, he dedicated a squared-up study for the seated figure of Crito, of the same technique and similar dimensions to the two present warrior studies to his friend, the sculptor Antoine-Denis Chaudet (1763-1810). The drawing, a preparation for one of the figures in his famous painting, The Death of Socrates, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and bears the inscription in pen and brown ink in the lower right: ‘David à son ami chaudet’ (inv. 61.161.1; Jacques-Louis David. Radical Draftsman, cat. exhibition, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022, no. 34, ill).

Several parallels can be drawn between the composition of these three warrior figures and David's early thoughts, notably in his sketchbooks. The same figures are to be found in connection with the Oath of the Horatii in sketchbook n° 2 in the Musée du Louvre (inv. RF 4506, fol. 2 verso, fol. 3 recto, fol. 83 verso; Rosenberg, Prat, op.cit., pp. 891-918). The artist also copied classical sculptures, whose attitudes he adapted for the figures in his painting. There is a great deal of overlap between the studies made directly after these sculptures and the preparatory studies for the Oath of the Horatii. For example, the heads of helmeted men with plumes drawn on folios 1329 recto, 1330 recto and 1331 recto are very similar to the third warrior in the background of the present drawing (ibid).

Large-scale figure studies: some comparisons
Stylistically, and in the handling of the chalk, whether black or white, an interesting parallel can be drawn between these cartoons and two early studies by Jacques-Louis David, executed around 1770-1774 and of a similar scale (54 x 41.6 cm and 53 x 44 cm). Likely produced before his Grand Prix de Rome and now in the Musée de la Chartreuse de Douai (inv. 466 and 467; Rosenberg, Prat, op. cit, I, no. 1, 2, ill), the extensive use of stump and white highlights to draw the muscles and add light are similar to the graphic style of the two warrior studies.

Lastly, dated around 1785, five large-scale figure studies for the Oath of the Horatii can be compared with the two present studies. These have many points in common: the dimensions to within a few centimetres, the squaring, the technique used with the accents of light applied in white chalk and the ever-present stump. Three are in the Musée Bonnat in Bayonne: the Old Horace, the Group of the Three Horatii (fig. 3), and the figure of Camille (inv. A.I 1889 N.I. 511; inv. A.I 1889 N.I. 512; inv. A.I 1889 N.I. 502; Rosenberg, Prat, op. cit, I, n° 69, 70, 73, ill.) and two in the Musée des beaux-arts d'Angers: Horace's Mother and her Grandchildren and the figure of Sabine (inv. MBA 846.2; inv. MBA 846.1; ibid., n° 71, 72, ill.).

As Perrin Stein has recently shown, Jacques-Louis David often produced these large-scale studies of nude or draped figures, for his large-scale history paintings. They were produced in parallel with early, very sketchy thoughts, studies of overall composition, and drawings reworked using his singular technique of cutting out certain figures to correct positions and placement in the composition (cat. exp., 2022, p. 214). Among the master's drawings, some of these large drawings were executed by his studio, as is the case for the two present sheets.

Fig. 1 J.-L. David, L’Enlèvement des Sabines, oil on canvas, Paris, musée du Louvre
Fig. 2 J.-L. David, Serment des Horaces, oil on canvas, Paris, musée du Louvre
Fig. 3 J.-L. David, Trois Horaces, black chalk and stump, heightened with white, Bayonne, musée Bonnat
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