Pierre-Narcisse Guérin

With Galerie de Bayser, Paris, by 1997

A.L. Clark et al., Mastery & Elegance, Two Centuries of French drawings from the collection of Jeffrey E. Horvitz, exhib. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (and Toronto, Paris, Edinburgh, New York and Los Angeles), 1998-2000, pp. 418-19, cat. no. A.151

Laid down on an old French mount. There is evidence of light foxing throughout, and some slight creases, most probably created when the sheet was laid down. The medium remains fresh throughout.
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This is one of a series of proposals for the design of uniforms and robes of public officials during the Revolution.  The original commission for these designs was given to David, but it appears they were ultimately produced by Denon.¹

^1. La Révolution française et l’Europe 1789-1799, exhib. cat., Paris, Grand Palais, 1989, vol. 3, pp. 691-92 The drawing was in the Appendix of Mastery & Elegance, see cat. no. A.151, pp. 418-19