After Jacques-Louis David 1748-1825

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Description

Jacques-Louis David
A BARBARIAN PRISONER
pen and dark brown ink on yellowish tracing paper
9in. by 5 7/8 in. (22.9cm by 14.9cm)

inscribed lower right au Capitol. and numbered 106

Literature

S. Howard, Sacrifice of the Hero: The Roman Years: A Classical Frieze by Jacques-Louis David, 1975, p. 105, note 50

J. Adhémar, David, naissance du génie d’un peintre, 1953, pl. 78

P. Rosenberg and L.-A. Prat, Jacques-Louis David, 1748-1825. Catalogue raisonné des dessins, 2 vols., 2002, vol. 2, p. 839, cat. no. C106

Catalogue Note

This is one of a group of tracings after David’s Italian sketchbooks and long thought to have been by the master himself. However, Rosenberg and Prat, (see Literature Op. cit., pp. 831-833) present a thorough and convincing discussion of why they are not by him. The figure in the present drawing is a statue of a barbarian chief in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome, but the original drawing by Ingres for the design is not known.