Artists - Part 83

Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, perhaps the most important painter of his era.  Above, a portrait of him in 1817 by his pupil Francois-Joseph Navez.  By the way, for those not familiar with French, his last name is not pronounced like the English name David.  It's pronounced dah-VEED.

He was not especially known for his nudes, though they do occur in his paintings.  However, drawing the nude male form was part of his art education at the Royal Academy in Paris, located in what is now the Louvre.  Above, Academy Study of the Male Nude, 1764.

In 1774 he won the Prix de Rome, which funded a multi-year stay in Rome to study art and classical subjects there.  Reclining Male Nude was drawn there c. 1775-77.

Another drawing from Rome, Seated Male Nude in Three-Quarter View, c. 1774-75.

This drawing, Man Stepping to the Right, c. 1770s, has been attributed to David and would also be from his Rome period.

After his studies, David proceeded to paint a large number of paintings on classical (ancient Greek and Roman) subjects, such as the Death of Socrates, not shown here.  The painting above, Patroclus, 1780, shows Patroclus, a companion of Achilles in the Trojan War in Homer's Iliad.  David's paintings sometimes showed rear male nudity.

But his paintings typically did not show frontal male nudity, as we see in Hector's Body, 1778, above.  Hector was a Trojan prince killed by Achilles in Homer's Iliad.  Some suspiciously placed drapery blocks our view.

Another example of hiding the frontal view is Cupid and Psyche, 1817.

However, David made a precursor sketch to Cupid and Psyche in 1813 in which we see everything, but Cupid's endowment is not very impressive.

We end with another classical painting, The Intervention of the Sabine Women, 1799.  This illustrates an episode in Roman myth where Hersilia intervenes between her husband, Romulus, at right, and her father Titus Tatius at left.  Romulus was the legendary founder of the city of Rome.  We see Romulus' butt and a peekaboo frontal on Titus.  Click on the painting for a larger view.