Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman

Exhibition
from 17/02/2022 to 15/05/2022
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Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman will be the first exhibition devoted to works on paper by the celebrated French artist who navigated vast artistic and political divides throughout his life—from his birth in Paris in 1748 to his death in exile in Brussels in 1825. His iconic works captured the aspirations and suffering of a nation, while addressing timeless themes that continue to resonate today.

The Fondation Napoléon is lending one of the masterpieces of its collection, a study by David for his famous painting of the “Sacre” (Napoleon’s Consecration and Coronation ceremony at Nôtre-Dame on 2 December 1804).

 

Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman

Through the lens of his preparatory studies, the exhibition looks beyond his public successes to chart the moments of inspiration and the progress of ideas. Visitors will follow the artist’s process as he gave form to the neoclassical style and created major canvases that shaped the public’s perceptions of historical events in the years before, during, and after the French Revolution.

Organized chronologically, the exhibition will feature more than eighty drawings and oil sketches—including rarely loaned or newly discovered works—drawn from the collections of The Met and dozens of institutional and private lenders.

website

The Met Fifth Avenue

1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028
Phone: 212-535-7710

[Image: Jacques Louis David, The Oath of the Tennis Court (detail), 1791. Pen and brown ink, pen and black ink, brush and brown wash, heightened with white, over black chalk. Musée du Louvre, Paris, on deposit at the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (inv. DESS 736 / MV 8409 / MV RF 1914). Photo: © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY, photo by Gérard Blot]

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