Jacques-Louis David

Anne-Thérèse Chassagnolle,
by descent to her son, Louis-Jules David-Chassagnolle,
thence by descent;
with Galerie de Bayser, Paris, by 1996;
Private Collection, Bologna;
sale, New York, Christie's, 23 January 2002, lot 95;
Private Collection

Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum and Williamstown, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Jacques-Louis David, Empire to Exile, (catalogue by Philippe Bordes), 2005, no. 38

A. Thomé de Gamond, Vie de David, Paris 1826, pp. 155-156 and 167;
M. Coupin, Essai sur J.L. David Peintre d'histoire..., Paris 1827, p. 59;
Miette de Villars, Mémoires de David, peintre et député à la Convention, Paris 1850, p. 225;
A. Cantaloube, 'Les dessins de Louis David', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, September 1860, p. 302, no. 15;
C. Blanc, Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles. École française, vol. II, 1865, p. 16;
J.L. David, Le peintre Louis David, 1748-1825, Paris 1880, vol. I, pp. 604 and 665;
S. Nash. 'The Drawings of Jacques-Louis David: Selected Problems', Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University 1973, pp. 168-170 and 240-241;
A. Brookner, Jacques-Louis David, London 1980, p. 187;
A. Sérullaz, 'Les dessins de la période bruxelloise', in Jacques-Louis David 1748-1825, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, and elsewhere, 1989, p. 547 (as lost);
S. Carroll, 'Reciprocal Representations: David and Theater', Art in America, vol. LXXVIII, no. 5, May 1990, pp. 200 and 259, no. 3;
A. Sérullaz, Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des dessins. Inventaire général des dessins. École française. Dessins de Jacques-Louis David 1748-1825, Paris 1991, pp. 47 and 328;
D. Johnson, The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis, Los Angeles 1997, pp. 70-72

Window mounted. The paper has slightly yellowed. Overall chalk very strong and fresh. A few very small nicks to the right edge.
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Engraved:

In the same direction by L. David for J.L. Jules David, Le peintre Louis David, 1748-1825, Suite d'Eaux-Fortes d'après ses oeuvres, Paris 1882.

As Philippe Bordes suggested in the 2005 exhibition catalogue (see Exhibited), it is likely that David had been contemplating a composition of the rape of Lucretia long before he executed the present work in 1825.¹  Indeed, as a passionate supporter of the Revolution and then of Napoleon, David’s political leanings had already resulted in his self-imposed exile in Brussels and it therefore seems likely that a subject as pro-democracy and anti-monarchy as the rape of Lucretia would have been hard for him to resist.  It was, after all, the repercussions of Lucretia’s rape that lead to Rome's ridding itself of its monarchical tyrants, and its becoming a republic.
The drawing itself is undoubtedly one of the finest that David executed during his exile in Brussels, standing out in terms of size, scope and quality from the majority of his works from the same period, which typically consist of single figures or head studies.  It therefore seems apt that this work should be one of the very last compositions David worked on before his death at the age of 77, as it perfectly encapsulates not only his true artistic prowess but also so many of the democratic principles for which he fought for much of his life.