Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
February 17–May 15, 2022

Regarded in his time as the most important painter in France, Jacques Louis David (1748–1825) produced major canvases that shaped the public’s perceptions of historical events in the years before, during, and after the French Revolution. Drawings were the primary vehicle by which he devised and refined his groundbreaking compositions. Opening February 17, 2022, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman is the first exhibition devoted to works on paper by this celebrated and influential artist. Through some 80 drawings and sketches from the collections of The Met and numerous private and institutional lenders from the United States and abroad—including rarely loaned or newly discovered works—visitors will see the progress of his ideas as he worked to create his masterful paintings. A highlight of the exhibition will be a work in The Met collection, The Death of Socrates (1787)—David’s most important painting in America—which will be displayed along with preparatory drawings that reveal his yearslong thought process and planning.

Max Hollein, Marina Kellen French Director of The Met, commented: "Jacques Louis David lived a long life in turbulent times, surviving revolutions, social upheavals, and imprisonment before dying in exile. Throughout those decades, drawing was central to his artistic practice—indeed it was an extension of his thinking. This exhibition will reveal how David worked through his ideas on paper and developed his famous compositions, offering new perspectives and insights on this influential artist."

Exhibition Overview

The exhibition—the first to focus on David’s preparatory studies—looks beyond his public successes to chart the moments of inspiration and the progress of ideas, both artistic and political. The works will be presented chronologically, starting with David’s early training in Rome. Sketches from this period represent the vast store of motifs that he mined for decades thereafter, including for his most famous paintings.

The works David submitted to the Salons after returning to France heralded a powerful new neoclassical style that drew its inspiration from classical antiquity. Paintings like The Oath of the Horatii (1784) and The Death of Socrates (1787) won instant acclaim and buttressed his growing reputation as leader of the French school. Several drawings on view demonstrate the artist’s quest to heighten the psychological impact and create a more powerful overall composition.

After rebelling against the constraints of France’s centralized monarchy in its waning days, David embraced the changes wrought by the Revolution of 1789. His most ambitious project—a depiction of the Oath of the Tennis Court, the event in which representatives of different classes of French society pledged to draft a constitution to counterbalance the absolute authority of the king—was never completed. The exhibition will feature a large presentation drawing that is one of David’s supreme achievements, deftly redeploying the language of the classical past to imbue a contemporary event with the drama and gravitas of a history painting.

David’s support of the more radical faction of the fledgling Republic led to his imprisonment. After his release, he attempted to regain dominance of the French school by exploring themes of national reconciliation through historical subjects like The Intervention of the Sabine Women (1799). Eventually, David reclaimed the spotlight through his support of Napoleon Bonaparte. David’s magisterial canvas memorialized the glittering spectacle in Notre Dame cathedral that marked Napoleon’s ascent from successful general to crowned emperor of France in 1804.

After a string of military defeats led to Napoleon’s downfall and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1816, David—a former regicide who had lent his talents to gilding the emperor’s image—was banished from his homeland. He went into exile and spent his final decade working in Brussels.

Exhibition Credits

Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman was organized by Perrin Stein, Curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints.

Catalogue

Jacques Louis David’s (1748–1825) paintings are among the most iconic in the history of Western art, but comparatively little is known about the artist’s nearly 2,000 drawings—from quick chalk sketches scribbled in notebooks to exquisite ink compositions enlivened with oil paint—that formed the basis of beloved masterpieces such as The Oath of the Horatii and The Death of Socrates.

Quick inside view of the catalogue

Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman is the first major publication to focus on the often years-long process of trial and experimentation that progressed from initial idea to finished canvas. Including several recently discovered drawings published here for the first time, this book provides a new perspective on the celebrated master.

Essays by international experts on the artist explore how David’s preparatory works on paper reveal the development of his creative process, while also bearing witness to the tumultuous years before, during, and after the French Revolution. As both a participant and an observer, David helped establish the new French society while documenting the drama, violence, and triumphs of modern history-in-the-making.