Jacques-Louis David
Study for the figure of Mirabeau standing naked, arm raised
Dominique-Vivant Denon after and with the collaboration of Jacques-Louis David
Le Serment du Jeu de Paume
This catalogue presents two exceptional and extremely rare works related to Jacques-Louis David’s famous project for a painting: Le Serment du Jeu de Paume [The Oath of the Tennis Court].
The first work, which we were lucky enough to be able to acquire, is one of two or three printed impressions of Jacques-Louis David’s only print, Étude pour la figure de Mirabeau nu debout, bras levé [Study for the Figure of Mirabeau Standing Nude with Arms Raised], whose lithographic stone was broken immediately afterwards. This lithograph, which reproduces a preparatory drawing for the Serment du Jeu de Paume, was previously known only through its mention in the catalogue of the collection of the art historian Pierre-Marie Gault de Saint-Germain, who was a contemporary of David’s. It is the impression from this collection that we have rediscovered.
We are also presenting a very rare impression of the large etching of the Serment du Jeu de Paume, produced in 1793/1794 by Dominique-Vivant Denon, after and in collaboration with Jacques-Louis David. Like David’s painting, Vivant-Denon’s etching remained unfinished. Only three other impressions are known to exist in public collections.
Jacques-Louis
DAVID (1748 - 1825)
Étude pour la figure de Mirabeau nu debout, bras levé
[Study for the figure of Mirabeau standing naked, arm raised] in his famous painting Le Serment du Jeu de Paume
Lithograph, 252 x 171 mm (image). Bordes Dessins 20 (commentary), Rosenberg and Prat 114 (commentary).
Fine impression printed on laid paper pasted on board. Slight foxing at the opening of the passe-partout and a few foxmarks in the subject. A slight scratch. Sheet size: 264 x 171 mm. Annotation in pen and ink on the front of the passe-partout at the foot: Essai impromptu sur la pierre lythographique / Par Louis David auteur du Serment des Horaces / La pierre a été brisée après le tirage de trois épreuves. [Impromptu test on the lithographic stone / By Louis David author of the Serment des Horaces / The stone was broken after three impressions were printed]. Annotation on the verso of the mounting card in pen and ink: Coll. de P. M. Gault. de Saint Germain et n°199 and another annotation at foot, slightly cropped, in graphite: Cette figure est un souvenir de l’étude de Mirabeau pour le serment du jeu de Paume. [This figure is a souvenir of Mirabeau’s study for the Serment du Jeu de Paume.] The reverse also bears two hand sketches in graphite and a truncated annotation in pen and ink Eau... and the number 403 in graphite.
Provenance: Pierre-Marie Gault de Saint-Germain (17541842), painter, art historian and art critic, husband of the painter Anna Gault de Saint-Germain. His signature on the reverse.
This impression is listed in the Inventaire de ma collection artistique et de mes manuscrits inédits drawn up by Gault de Saint-Germain in 1839 (Paris, École des Beaux-Arts, ms 329). It is described as follows in his Notice des dessins de la Collection de Pierre Marie Gault de Saint Germain, littérateur, amateur: «David (Louis) auteur du Serment des Horaces etc. Essai lithographique d’après l’étude pour Mirabeau dans son tableau du Serment du jeu de paume, à Versailles. C’est la seule épreuve du crayon lithographique de ce célèbre artiste, qui a fait brisé [sic] la pierre, devant lui, après le tirage de deux épreuves. » [David (Louis) author of the Serment des Horaces etc. Lithographic test after the study for Mirabeau in his painting of the Serment du Jeu de paume, at Versailles. This is the only impression of the lithographic pencil by this famous artist, who had the stone broken in front of him after two impressions had been printed». (f° 435).
This impression was perhaps one of the drawings in the Gault de Saint-Germain collection sold on 19 March 1839 by the auctioneer Gitton de la Ribellerie. It is difficult to be certain, however, as the sale catalogue does not describe the lots in detail. Nor can the minutes of the sale in the auctioneer’s archives at the Archives de Paris be used to identify precisely the few drawings by David mentioned in the various lots (Archives de Paris, Sect. III, D39 E3 5).
The lithograph is a fairly accurate reproduction of a lead pencil drawing, with a square setting, in the Musée Bonnat in Bayonne (AI 1899, NI 522; Bordes cat. no. 20). The sheet measures 281 x 207 mm and probably dates from 1791 (Rosenberg and Prat, p. 125).
It is interesting to note that Gault de Saint-Germain included this lithograph in his collection of drawings, considering it to be an autograph work by David from his «crayon lithographique».
Its mounting is typical of those used to display drawings, with its pen-and-ink frames, gold fillet, coloured wash and handwritten caption at the foot.
The existence of this lithograph was previously known only from the manuscripts of Gault de Saint-Germain, cited by Philippe Bordes and later by Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat. In his exhaustive study Le Serment du Jeu de Paume de Jacques-Louis David, Philippe Bordes notes, with reference to the drawing conserved in Bayonne, that «According to P. Gault de Saint-Germain, David executed his only lithographic test after this figure and had the stone broken after only two impressions had been printed (Paris, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, ms 329, f° 435)». (Bordes, pp. 199-200, translated by us).
In their catalogue raisonné of the drawings of Jacques-Louis David, Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat note that: «Bordes cites manuscript 329 from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, according to which (folio 435), according to Gault de SaintGermain, David made an attempt at lithographing this figure. The stone was broken after the printing of two impressions, neither of which is known». (Rosenberg and Prat p. 125, translated by us).
In our research into this print, however, we discovered that the Musée Lansyer in Loches holds an impression of this lithograph (inventory number 2013.0.780, digitised print available online) which entered the collections of the future Musée Lansyer with the bequest by the painter and aquafortist Emmanuel Lansyer (1835 - 1893) to his home town of Loches. The bottom of the impression bears an annotation similar to ours: Mirabeau du serment du jeu de Paume. The sheet, signed or annotated David in graphite lower left, measures 322 x 207 mm.
If, as Gault de Saint-Germain indicates in the inventory of his collection, David had only two impressions printed, ours was his, the other being that of the Lansyer museum. However, the handwritten annotation on the passe-partout of our impression mentions three copies, so there may be another impression, which has yet to be located.
Apart from this «Essai impromptu sur la pierre lythographique», Jacques-Louis David did not engrave anything himself. He did, however, collaborate in the creation of the etching of the Serment du Jeu de Paume by Dominique-Vivant Denon: «we are currently working jointly on the etching of the painting of the Jeu de Paume», he wrote (quoted by Bordes, p. 85, translated by us). DominiqueVivant Denon, who made many prints, was one of the first in France to take an interest in the fledgling art of lithography.
Michael Henker explains that «the invention of lithographic reproduction made in Munich in 1796/98 by the Bavarian Aloys Senefelder reached France as early as 1800 at the instigation of Anton André (1775-1842), a publisher of Offenbach’s music of Huguenot origin. That same year, a lithographic printing works opened in Paris, and other European capitals soon followed suit. Napoleon himself showed great interest in the new reproduction process. He sent a commission of staff officers to Munich, including Dominique-Vivant Denon (1747-1825), Director General of French museums. The commission was initiated by Senefelder himself in his studio». (De Senefelder à Daumier, p. 9, translated by us). Lithography was soon used to reproduce master drawings.
It is very possible that Denon (or another pioneer of lithography, such as Nicolas-Henri Jacob, who was David’s pupil) told David about this process and that David wanted to try out this revolutionary technique. The lithographic drawing of the nude figure of Mirabeau is in fact intended as a reproduction of the drawing, from which it takes most of the features, with a few exceptions (note, for example, the absence of the hat that Mirabeau is holding in his left hand in the drawing). The question of dating the lithograph remains open. It cannot, of course, have been produced when David was working on his project, in 1790-1791, or even when Denon made his etching version, around 1793-1794. On the other hand, it may date from the first or early second decade of the 19th century, as the existence of lithographic printing works in Paris made such an attempt possible. David may also have made it during his exile in Brussels, between 1816 and 1825, the date of his death, especially as he was once again concerned with reproducing his painting in the early 1820s.
The nude figure of Mirabeau is one of «three isolated studies for figures in the Serment, and all three show the nude figure». The other two figures are Barnave and Père Gérard [...]. “No doubt they were intended to be transferred to the large canvas, barely sketched out, where Barnave’s head is one of the few (along with those of the other two figures mentioned above) to have been painted. [...] The isolated drawings of nudes for the Serment probably date from early 1791, around the time of the Fogg sheet [...]» (Jacques-Louis David, 1748-1825, p. 125, translated by us).
References:
Philippe Bordes: Le Serment du Jeu de Paume de Jacques-Louis David : le peintre, son milieu et son temps, de 1789 à 1792. Notes et documents des musées de France 8. Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1983.
Michael Henker, Karlheinz Scherr and Elmar Stolpe: De Senefelder à Daumier : les débuts de l’art lithographique, 1988.
Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat: Jacques-Louis David, 1748-1825: catalogue raisonné des dessins. Milan: Leonardo arte, 2002.
Photographic credits:
Jacques-Louis David, Le Serment du Jeu de Paume; avec légende, 1791: Pen and brown ink, with touches in some places in pen and black ink, brown wash and and white highlights, over pencil lines. GrandPalaisRmn
Jacques-Louis David, Le Serment du Jeu de Paume: black and white pencil, charcoal, oil paint on canvas. GrandPalaisRmn (Château de Versailles) / Franck Raux
Dominique-Vivant DENON (1747 - 1825)
after and in collaboration with
Jacques-Louis DAVID (1748 - 1825)
Le Serment du Jeu de Paume - 1793/1794
Etching, 490 x 759 mm (borderline), 500 x 766 mm (sheet). IFF 405; Bordes B1; Denon: L’oeil de Napoléon no. 55.
Marcel Roux in the Inventaire du Fonds Français states that this print has no lettering, which is reiterated by Philippe Bordes. This is inaccurate, as Udolpho van de Sandt points out in Denon: L’oeil de Napoléon: it is signed and dated in drypoint, admittedly very light and very difficult to read. Udolpho van de Sandt writes: «Signed, dated, bottom left: David faciebat 1791; bottom right: Denon scul anno 3». For our part, we read instead the following letter, entirely written in the lower right-hand corner of the composition: J L [?] David faciebat an° 1791 Denon scul anno 2.
Very fine impression printed on watermarked laid paper (double-headed eagle bearing a heart surmounted by a crown and AUVERGNE cartouche accompanied by names that are difficult to read). Good condition. Sheet slightly yellowed; three small foxmarks in the subject; a trace of vertical rubbing at the top; a 40 mm tear restored on the right edge; the extreme tip of the upper left corner repaired in the white part (no lack in the image); three tiny abrasions. Verso: trace of a vertical central fold and trace of a diagonal fold.
Impressions of this unfinished plate are extremely rare: we know of only three others. The Bibliothèque nationale de France owns two. One (object number RESERVE AA-5 (DENON, DominiqueVivant), former object number EF-47-FOL), has been digitised and is available online: ESTNUM-31225; it comes from the collection of Dominique-Vivant Denon. It is trimmed to around 1 cm outside the square line. The other impression in the BnF (RESERVE AA-6, ESTNUM-23609 (microform)) is reproduced in Dominique-Vivant Denon: l’œil de Napoléon. A third impression is in the British Museum (object number 1878,0713.2079).
Exhibition: Our impression was exhibited at the Palais Bourbon in 1989 as part of the exhibition celebrating the bicentenary of the French Revolution and the National Assembly.
It is reproduced in the catalogue 1789, L’Assemblée nationale, page 95 (detail), and described on p. 123.
In 1790 David conceived the project of painting a very large picture commemorating the Oath of the Jeu de Paume, the term used to describe the commitment made on 20 June 1789 by the 576 deputies assembled in the Salle du Jeu de Paume in Versailles to meet until a new Constitution was established. A public subscription was soon launched to raise the funds needed for this monumental painting. In May 1791, a large preparatory drawing in graphite, ink, bistre wash and white highlights (65 x 105 cm) was completed by David and presented in his studio in the Louvre. It was then exhibited at the Salon of September 1791 with the following note: «On souscrit pour la gravure de ce dessin chez M. Gerdret, négociant, rue des Bourdonnais». However, the subscription was not as successful as had been hoped. The political uncertainties linked to the Terreur forced David to abandon his painting for the time being.
The project was not completely abandoned, however, and in early 1794 Dominique-Vivant Denon collaborated with David to produce an etching of the Serment. At this time, the painter «sent a note to the Minister of Foreign Affairs to defend the printmaker, who was suspected of incivism because of his stays abroad: ‘[...] We are currently working jointly on the etching of the Jeu de Paume painting. He did the etching; he would not have done it if he had not been a good patriot’» (Bordes, p. 85, translated by us).
However, the print itself remained unfinished. «In a note, the date and addressee of which are not known, Denon complained that the work on the large etching was too extensive «to bring it to its final effect, if he did it alone» and wished to have «a collaborator who would take care of the reworking with burin and drypoint». Nonetheless, Denon’s work, with its untidy graphic style and lack of concern for rendering the portraits, which suits the political ambiguity of the project very well, is admirable and possesses an energy of execution that we look for in vain in the prints that Jazet would produce thirty years later». (Bordes, p. 85, translated by us).
In exile in Brussels, in 1820 David gave the right to engrave the Serment du Jeu de Paume to the Parisian Daniel Isoard de Martouret, who hired Jean-Pierre-Marie Jazet in 1821 to prepare the print, which was completed and marketed a few years later.
References: Philippe Bordes : Le Serment du Jeu de Paume de Jacques-Louis David : le peintre, son milieu et son temps, de 1789 à 1792. Notes et documents des musées de France 8. Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1983. Marie-Anne Dupuy (dir.) : Dominique-Vivant Denon: l’œil de Napoléon: Paris, Musée du Louvre, 20 octobre 1999-17 janvier 2000. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1999.
