Jacques-Louis David

Jules Boilly, Paris,
his sale, Paris, Hôtel des Commissaires-Priseurs, 19-20 March 1869, lot 99,
where purchased by Barroilhet;
sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 22 March 1983, lot 3,
where acquired by the present owner

J.L.J. David, Le Peintre Louis David, 1748-1825. Souvenirs et documents inédits par son petit-fils, Paris 1880, vol. I, p. 653;
Jacques Louis David, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1989-1990, pp. 146, under no. 56 and 150, cited under no. 58;
Fragonard et le dessin Français au XVIIIe siècle dans les collection du Petit Palais, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Petit Palais, 1992-1993, p. 100, under no. 50;
P. Rosenberg and L-A. Prat, Jacques-Louis David, 1784-1825: catalogue raisonné des dessins, Milan 2002, vol. I, p. 83, no. 64, reproduced

Window mounted with Japan paper. Overall in good condition. A small hole at the upper margin in the center that has been made up/filled in. A few areas where it appears the paper has thinned and a circular white area at level of Andromache's waist where perhaps there was some previous staining. Small light brown stains, barely visible. Chalk strong. Sold in carved and gilded frame.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

On 22 August 1783 David was elected into the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, an enormous honor for the artist and a significant step in ensuring his pre-eminence in years to come.  His morceau de réception was a monumental painting, Andromache Mourning Hector,¹ in which the sorrowful Andromache is seen weeping in despair, seated beside the lifeless body of her husband Hector, who had recently died at the hands of Achilles.

The present drawing is undoubtedly a preparatory work for the aforementioned painting and fits in well with the corpus of other known drawings relating to this project.²  There are, however, a number of details in which our drawing varies from these other preparatory studies, and indeed from the final painting.  They include the pose of Astyanax’s left hand and perhaps more notably Andromache’s exposed left arm and breast and the fall of the drapery over her chair and legs. 

All these subtle differences can also be found in an oil sketch of the composition, executed by David in 1783 and now housed in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow.³  It seems reasonable to assume that this oil sketch was the final preparatory work executed by David prior to embarking on the painting itself, and that he then made the minor changes that are evident in the final canvas during the process of its execution.  Our drawing can therefore be considered with some confidence to be the final preparatory work on paper for the project, drawn immediately before David moved on to the next stage in the process, the oil sketch.

1. Paris, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, inv. no. Pture MRA 129 bis

2. P. Rosenberg and L-A. Prat, op. cit. 2002, pp. 80-83, nos. 60-63, all reproduced

3. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, inv. no. 843