.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
This fine painting is unpublished and cannot be identified in the list of his paintings compiled by David himself in 1817. However, its superb and confident draftsmanship, rich and subtle handling and characteristic execution in scumbled glazes of varying density make an attribution to Jacques-Louis David convincing.
Although the model’s face is characterized with the specificity of a portrait, her pose, expression, gesture and revealing costume suggest that the painting was intended as a kind of ‘tête d’expression’ rather than an example of traditional portraiture. David produced a number of such expression studies over his career – the Young Woman in a Turban (c. 1780; Cleveland Museum of Art), the Bust of a Young Woman, called ‘La Folle’ (c. 1780; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble), the Head of a Young Man in a Diadem (c. 1780; Musée Fabre, Montpellier) and the Bust of a Man, called ‘Le Geôlier’ (c. 1794; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen) are but several examples. Occasionally, he seems to have elaborated such expression studies into half-length ‘history pictures’, in which a single figure personified a classical or mythological character, or a virtue – notably the unusual pendants representing ‘A Vestal’ and ‘Psyche Abandoned’ (c. 1787; both in private collections).
The picture is almost certainly unfinished, the likely reason that it is not recorded in the list of paintings drawn up by the artist. Indeed, most of David’s unfinished works are not included in the listing, including celebrated masterpieces such as The Death of Bara (1793; Musée Calvet, Avignon) and Madame Recamier (1800; Louvre, Paris), the many portrait studies for The Oath of the ‘Jeu de Paume’, the great portraits of Louise Trudaine (1791; Louvre, Paris) and Philippe-Laurent de Joubert (1792; Musée Fabre, Montpellier), all begun in the early years of the Revolution, and the beautiful, late-career portraits of the artist’s daughters (c. 1810; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Fondation Oscar Reinhart, Winterthur).
Why David left so many pictures uncompleted – their deftly sketched, richly scumbled surfaces absent finishing glazes – is unknown. As Antoine Schnapper has noted, David was a notoriously slow painter, prompting some commissions to be withdrawn in exasperation (famously, that of Recamier), and the unsettled years of the Revolution saw governments change and patrons emigrate or perish before David completed his work. Nonetheless, long after political stability returned, the artist continued the practice; it seems probable that with sketches and studies, like the present work, and uncommissioned portraits of family and friends (for which he was uncompensated), David was unable to devote the time required to bring them to the state of finish that characterizes his commissioned works.
Judging from the model’s loose chemise in the Antique taste and fashionable hairstyle, with its intricately arranged finger-curls shaped into cedilla accents, the present painting probably dates to circa 1800-10.
Although the model’s face is characterized with the specificity of a portrait, her pose, expression, gesture and revealing costume suggest that the painting was intended as a kind of ‘tête d’expression’ rather than an example of traditional portraiture. David produced a number of such expression studies over his career – the Young Woman in a Turban (c. 1780; Cleveland Museum of Art), the Bust of a Young Woman, called ‘La Folle’ (c. 1780; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble), the Head of a Young Man in a Diadem (c. 1780; Musée Fabre, Montpellier) and the Bust of a Man, called ‘Le Geôlier’ (c. 1794; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen) are but several examples. Occasionally, he seems to have elaborated such expression studies into half-length ‘history pictures’, in which a single figure personified a classical or mythological character, or a virtue – notably the unusual pendants representing ‘A Vestal’ and ‘Psyche Abandoned’ (c. 1787; both in private collections).
The picture is almost certainly unfinished, the likely reason that it is not recorded in the list of paintings drawn up by the artist. Indeed, most of David’s unfinished works are not included in the listing, including celebrated masterpieces such as The Death of Bara (1793; Musée Calvet, Avignon) and Madame Recamier (1800; Louvre, Paris), the many portrait studies for The Oath of the ‘Jeu de Paume’, the great portraits of Louise Trudaine (1791; Louvre, Paris) and Philippe-Laurent de Joubert (1792; Musée Fabre, Montpellier), all begun in the early years of the Revolution, and the beautiful, late-career portraits of the artist’s daughters (c. 1810; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Fondation Oscar Reinhart, Winterthur).
Why David left so many pictures uncompleted – their deftly sketched, richly scumbled surfaces absent finishing glazes – is unknown. As Antoine Schnapper has noted, David was a notoriously slow painter, prompting some commissions to be withdrawn in exasperation (famously, that of Recamier), and the unsettled years of the Revolution saw governments change and patrons emigrate or perish before David completed his work. Nonetheless, long after political stability returned, the artist continued the practice; it seems probable that with sketches and studies, like the present work, and uncommissioned portraits of family and friends (for which he was uncompensated), David was unable to devote the time required to bring them to the state of finish that characterizes his commissioned works.
Judging from the model’s loose chemise in the Antique taste and fashionable hairstyle, with its intricately arranged finger-curls shaped into cedilla accents, the present painting probably dates to circa 1800-10.