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Notice the strict profile, the tall hat and the crossed arms, set in a circle like the head on a coin.
David drew his friend and fellow revolutionary Jeanbon Saint-André in 1795, while both men were in prison. The fixed stare, crossed arms and sober black coat and hat express the sitter’s convictions, and the strict profile recalls heads on ancient coins, linking him with the virtues of republican Rome. David’s Latin inscription on the mount calls the drawing a gift of friendship and a comfort of affection, made in confinement.
Pen and black ink and brush and black ink with yellow ocher watercolor over graphite, on cream laid paper · 18.3 × 18.3 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Neoclassicism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Portrait of Jeanbon Saint-André
- Artist
- Jacques-Louis David French, 1748-1825
- Date
- 1795
- Medium
- Pen and black ink and brush and black ink with yellow ocher watercolor over graphite, on cream laid paper
- Dimensions
- 18.3 × 18.3 cm (7 1/4 × 7 1/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Helen Regenstein Collection
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.