Nude Soldiers Gesticulating with Their Weapons (recto); Two Drapery Studies for the Figure of Tatius (verso)

1796·Black chalk and pen and black ink, with touches of white chalk (recto) and black chalk, with touches of red and white chalk (verso) on cream laid paper, pieced·40.9 × 55 cm (16 1/8 × 21 11/16 in.)

<p>This large, bold drawing is a preparatory study for the painting The Intervention of the Sabine Women. In the legendary origin story of ancient Rome, the city’s founder Romulus and his men sought to establish families by abducting the neighboring Sabine women and forcing them to become their wives. When the vengeful Sabines declared war on the Romans, Romulus’s wife and the other Sabine women threw themselves and their infants between the two armies and successfully stopped a war.</p> <p>The subject allowed Jacques-Louis David, who conceived of it while in prison for his activities during the French Revolution, to deliver a powerful postrevolutionary message of political and familial reconciliation.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1796
Medium: Black chalk and pen and black ink, with touches of white chalk (recto) and black chalk, with touches of red and white chalk (verso) on cream laid paper, pieced
Dimensions: 40.9 × 55 cm (16 1/8 × 21 11/16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Jacques-Louis David

Artist

Jacques-Louis David

Painting

Jacques-Louis David was a French painter whose large-scale historical compositions established neoclassicism as the dominant aesthetic of late 18th-century Europe. Working primarily in oil on canvas, he depicted classical and revolutionary subjects with austere draftsmanship, restrained color, and an emphasis on moral clarity and civic virtue. His work shaped the visual culture of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era, influencing generations of academic painters across Europe.

Paris, France

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