Etude pour « Le Triomphe de David »,

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Jules Elie Delaunay
Etude pour « Le Triomphe de David »,
1874

Name: Etude pour « Le Triomphe de David »,
Brand: Jules Elie Delaunay
Price: 42163.34 USD

About the Item

Etude pour « Le Triomphe de David », circa 1874 Pierre noire and white chalk on wove paper. 37.8x25.6 cm (14 7/8” x 9 7/8” in) Certain works contribute to an evolving concept and they testify to precise moments in the process of creation, whereby an artist seeks to incorporate various drawings into a formal scheme. In this context, the nude is among the first links in the chain of composition, defined by Charles Blanc in his Grammar in the Art of Drawing as “Ordering, that is to say the art of giving order to the elements of a painting, of arranging and combining them.” The present drawing is a preparatory study for David Triomphant (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes.) One of Jules-Elie Delaunay’s most renowned works, the painting was exhibited at the Salon of 1874 (Room 7, near La Mort d’Abel by Cabanel), later at the Universal Exposition of 1878 and then at the Centennial of 1889. The work was caricatured - a tribute to its success - in l’Illustration, and reviewed by Paul Mantz, Louis Leroy, Arthur Duparc. It was judged “declamatory” by Ernest Duvergier de Hauranne, who admitted that the figure was “firmly drawn”, but “with an angular and confined aspect”, a criticism that was leveled in the past to Antonin Mercié’s sculpture of David as well. The canon of the graceful adolescent was not favored by critics of the time, who preferred that a more virile athleticism incarnate France in its post-Franco-Prussian-War vengeance mode. This was particularly Duvergier’s case, since he was a deputy of the National Assembly. Nonetheless, Marc de Montifaud praises the “figure” as “a serious academy”, “a study that is both precise and compact in form” and he finds that the background landscape is reminiscencent of Gustave Moreau and Fromentin. For Louis Gonse, who published an autograph sketch of the work in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, “the David of Monsieur Delaunay, one of the most solid pillars of the contemporary school, demonstrates his habitual qualities of power and style.” Taking up the patriotic theme which was glorified by the plaster, and later the bronze by Antonin Mercié, Delaunay differentiates himself from the sculptor with the urchin-like impertinence of his model, an attitude which is chosen with some hesitation on the artist’s part, as evidenced by the various drawings conserved by the museum in Nantes. David’s pose, full of energy and determination, has been finally decided upon in the present study, even if slight variations separate the present drawing, in pierre noire highlighted with chalk, from the Salon painting.

Creator:
Jules Elie Delaunay (1828 - 1891, French)
Creation Year:
1874
Dimensions:
Height: 14.89 in (37.8 cm)Width: 10.08 in (25.6 cm)
Medium:
Chalk,Crayon,Graphite
Movement & Style:
Romantic
Period:
1870-1879
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Paris, FR
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU135125940762