Pierre-Paul Prud'hon

Inherited from the artist by Charles-Boulanger de Boisfremont (L.353),
thence by inheritance to Mme. Power, née de Boisfremont,
her sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 15-16 April 1864, lot 39,
M. Laperlier, Paris,
sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 11-13 April 1867, lot 100;
M. Icard, Paris;
with Jean de Cayeux, Galerie Cailleux (L.4461), by 1963

Paris, Galerie Cailleux, Le dessin français de Watteau à Prud’hon, 1951, no. 108;
New York, The New York Cultural Center, Collectors Anonymous; Four Private New York Collections, 1972;
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, 1998, ex catalogue

E. de Goncourt, Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre Peint, Dessiné et Gravé de P.P. Prud'hon, Paris 1876, p. 167;
S. Laveissière, Prud'hon: La Justice et la Vengeance divine poursuivant le Crime, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1986, p. 44, under no. 20A*

Hinge mounted. There is evidence of some very light brown foxing throughout. The sheet has two strips of blue paper added to the upper and lower edges. There are some small stains and areas of light surface dirt throughout. The chalk medium is still strong throughout this powerful sheet. Sold in a giltwood Empire frame.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This handsome drawing, powerfully executed in Prud’hon’s characteristic black and white chalk on blue paper, is particularly fascinating, as it represents the artist’s first, unrestrained thought for his portrayal of Le Criminel, a key figure in his celebrated painting of 1808, La Justice et la Vengeance divine poursuivant le Crime, now in the Louvre.¹

The commission for the painting dates back to 1804, when Prud’hon was instructed by Nicolas Frochot, the first Prefect of the Seine, to create a work to be hung in the salle du tribunal criminel in Paris’ Palais de Justice.  Under the French monarchy there had long been a tradition for religious art to predominate in France’s criminal courts, replete with imagery that was intended, quite literally, to put the fear of God into the offenders as they passed through.  Prud’hon’s response to this tradition was to create a no less terrifying secular alternative, in which female allegories of Justice and Divine Vengeance were now to enforce Napoleonic justice throughout the land.  In the composition that he devised, these allegorical figures pursue Crime, who is seen fleeing the scene of a violent robbery, clutching a knife in his right hand, the limp and lifeless body of his victim sprawled out on the ground behind him.  But Crime has nowhere to run, when faced with Justice’s sword – a stern message to all of those visiting the Palais de Justice for the wrong reasons.

In the final painting, the pose of the figure of Crime differs somewhat from that seen in the present, monumental drawing, but the latter is surely an Academy study, made from the live model, rather than an image created from Prud’hon’s imagination as he planned his composition, and the man’s intense expression and specific facial features strongly support the connection with the painting.  From this Academy study, Prud’hon developed the final figure of Crime that we see in the Louvre painting today.  The intensity of expression and somewhat sinister casting of shadow across the figure’s face, as well as the sense of movement that his teetering pose generates, all lend themselves very well to the portrayal of a menace on the run. 

In another study for the painting (present whereabouts unknown), a Tête d’homme which has variously been described as Tête du meurtrier and Étude pour l’assassin², Prud’hon revisited the head of our figure, repeating very closely but in more detail the forms of the head seen in the present, full-length study; indeed Laveissière described the two heads as ‘identique’, in his catalogue for the 1986 exhibition at the Louvre.³

The drawing’s association with the Palais de Justice commission is further reinforced by a detail from its illustrious provenance, namely its placement within the catalogue of the 1864 sale of Mme Power’s collection.  Mme Power had inherited this drawing, along with others by Prud’hon, from her father, Charles-Boulanger de Boisfremont, a pupil of Prud’hon’s who had received many drawings and oil sketches by his master on the latter’s death in 1823.  In the Power sale, the present drawing was offered as lot 39, in between a study for the figure of Justice⁴ and a detailed head study for Vengeance⁵, both relating to the same commission, which were lots 38 and 40 respectively.

In this spectacular work, Prud’hon has managed to combine all of the technical qualities one would expect to find in one of his finest Academy drawings with a visceral energy, captured in the figure’s intensity of expression and perceived sense of movement.  The drawing is both hugely impressive visually, and of great art historical significance in the context of this important and prestigious commission.

1. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. 7340
2. Laveissière, op. cit., p. 44, under no. 20
3. Ibid., under no. 20A*
4. Bayonne, Musée Bonnat, inv. no. 1129
5. Chicago, The Art Institute, inv. no. 1952.1111