Nude Soldiers Gesticulating with Their Weapons (recto); Two Drapery Studies for the Figure of Tatius (verso)
Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825)
1796/97
View the original$19
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Materials & printing
Archival matte paper, 189 g/m² (10.3 mil), sourced from Japan, printed with multicolor water-based inkjet so every brushstroke stays crisp. Framed prints arrive ready to hang in a .75″ ayous-wood frame with an acrylite front. Sized to standard frames by cropping, never stretching — at most about 3% comes off one edge, which isn’t noticeable on most pieces, and we only offer a size when it stays that small.
Shipping & returns
Made to order and delivered in 5–8 business days (2–4 to print, 3–4 in transit). US shipping only for now. Because each print is made for your order, all sales are final — but if it arrives damaged or defective, send us a photo within 14 days and we’ll replace it free. Full policy.
Why is it this affordable?
A thin, flat margin on every piece — just enough to keep the store running. Most of what you pay is the print itself. We only sell sizes that reproduce at full quality, and we don’t mark up the large sizes the way most shops do.
About this work
This large, bold drawing is a preparatory study for the painting The Intervention of the Sabine Women. In the legendary origin story of ancient Rome, the city’s founder Romulus and his men sought to establish families by abducting the neighboring Sabine women and forcing them to become their wives. When the vengeful Sabines declared war on the Romans, Romulus’s wife and the other Sabine women threw themselves and their infants between the two armies and successfully stopped a war.
The subject allowed Jacques-Louis David, who conceived of it while in prison for his activities during the French Revolution, to deliver a powerful postrevolutionary message of political and familial reconciliation.
- Medium
- Black chalk and pen and black ink, with touches of white chalk (recto) and black chalk, with touches of red and white chalk (verso) on cream laid paper, pieced
- Original size
- 40.9 × 55 cm (16 1/8 × 21 11/16 in.)
Museum record · 2 owners · 2 exhibitions
Provenance
- Private collection, Switzerland; sold, Christie’s, London, Dec. 6, 1972, lot 165, to Stella.
- Sold, Christie’s, London, July 5, 1988, lot 141, to a private collector; sold, Sotheby’s, New York, Jan. 28, 2015, lot 156, through François Borne to the Gray Collection Trust, Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.
Exhibitions
- New York, Wildenstein and Co., The Arts of France from François 1er to Napoléon 1er: A Centennial Celebration of Wildenstein’s Presence in New York, 2005–6.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, "Pure Drawing: Seven Centuries of Art from the Gray Collection", January 25 - May 10, 2020, GC 81, traveled to New York, The Morgan Library, February 19 - June 6, 2021, and Berkeley CA, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, August 4 - November 28, 2021.
