Jacques-Louis David Paris 1748 - 1825 Brussels

Probably:
Girodet-Troison sale, Paris, 11 April 1825 and following days, lot 481 (measured 9 by 13 pounces, i.e. 243 by 350mm);
Coutan sale, Paris, 9-10 March 1829, lot 93 (as a pendant to lot 92: Caracalla faisant [sic] assassiner son frère dans les bras de sa mère);
Dumont sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 13-16 February 1854, lot 120 (lot 119 was The murder of Geta by Caracalla);
Théodore Dumesnil, 1884;
Private collection, France  
 

This hitherto unknown drawing depicts the moment at which Septimus Severus appears as a ghost to his son, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, known as Caracalla, to denounce the murder of Caracalla's brother Geta.  On his death, Septimus Severus left the Empire jointly to the two brothers, of whom Geta was the most popular.  Caracalla not only murdered his rival, but also Geta's followers and sympathizers, leading to a reign of bloodshed and cruelty. 

David seems to have taken a particular interest in the story of Caracalla, as he made four studies of Caracalla killing his brother Geta in the arms of their mother Julia, which are dated circa 1782 by Rosenberg and Prat (Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam; the Louvre; the École des Beux-Arts, Paris and the New Orleans Museum of Art, see P. Rosenberg and L.-A. Prat, Jacques-Louis David 1748-1825, Catalogue raisonné des dessins, volume I, Milan 2002, pp. 75-7, cat. nos. 54-7).  Although no painting of either subject is known by David, Rosenberg and Prat speculate that he might have been considering them for his morceau de réception of 1783.

Another version of the present composition, in pen and ink and wash and dated 1783, is in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass., on long term deposit from the collection of Jeffrey E. Horvitz (Rosenberg and Prat, op. cit., p. 84, cat. no. 65).  Interestingly, the provenance listed by Rosenberg and Prat for the Horvitz drawing appears, instead, to apply to this version.  The Girodet-Trioson sale of April 1825, in which a drawing of the subject appears as lot 481, gives measurements which match the present drawing more accurately, as do those of the catalogue for the Dumesnil drawing in the 1884 exhibition, where, furthermore, the medium is given as 'au lavis rehaussé de blanc''.  Rosenberg and Prat in fact speculate on the existence of another version of the composition due to these differences of medium and measurements. 

The two versions differ not only in the medium and measurements, but also in numerous compositional details: the architectural setting, details of the furniture and weapons, and the placement of the figures are all somewhat different, with the result that the present version is more concentrated and dramatic in its effect.

David's pupil Girodet was clearly influenced by the composition of this drawing by his teacher when conceiving his own dramatic entry for the 1787 Prix de Rome, the painting of Nabuchodonosor fait tuer les enfants de Sédécias en présence de leur père, now in Le Mans (Musée Tessé).  By the time of his death in 1824, Girodet owned the drawing itself, but it is not known whether he already possessed it by 1787, or having seen and admired it earlier, only acquired it at later date.