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See how a few gray washes build the walls, arches and tower, leaving bare paper for the sunlit faces.
David tried several times before he won the Prix de Rome in 1774, and in 1775 he went to Rome to study ancient art and architecture. Over five years he filled hundreds of sheets with what he studied there, including views of the countryside around the city such as this villa with its tower. He later gathered the sheets into albums and drew on them as a store of ideas for his mature Neoclassical work.
Brush and gray washes, over graphite, on ivory laid paper · 16.9 × 22.3 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Neoclassicism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Villa in the Campagna
- Artist
- Jacques-Louis David French, 1748-1825
- Date
- 1775–80
- Medium
- Brush and gray washes, over graphite, on ivory laid paper
- Dimensions
- 16.9 × 22.3 cm (6 11/16 × 8 13/16 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial 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.