Jacques-Louis David
Studies for the Coronation
Estimate
6,000 - 10,000 EUR
Lot Details
Description
Jacques-Louis David
Paris 1748 - 1825 Brussels
Studies for the Coronation
Recto : Study of a man ;
Verso : Study of a man holding a bicorn (possibly the Marquis d'Esterno)
Black chalk on paper (recto and verso); bears illegible initials lower right, in pen and brown ink (recto and verso)
201 x 149 mm
Anonymous sale, Beaussant-Lefèvre, Paris, 8 December 2006, lot 23;
Where acquired by the present owner.
P. Rosenberg and L.-A. Prat, De David à Delacroix. Du tableau au dessin, Onzièmes rencontres internationales du Salon du Dessin, actes du colloque (30-31 March 2016), Paris 2017, pp. 52 and 172, fig. 16 and 17.
These two studies of men can probably be associated with one of the works commissioned by Napoleon from David to commemorate the ceremonies organized around his coronation in December 1804, which included The Distribution of the Eagle Standards (see lot 31).
It has been suggested that David drew these two figures with a view to including them in the Coronation of the Emperor and Empress (1805–1807; Musée du Louvre), but he did not do so. It has also been proposed that the man wearing a feathered hat is the Duc de Talleyrand, who does appear in the painting of the coronation.