Model prisoners - portraits by Jacques-Louis David, 1795

 

From the beginning, David was a fervent supporter of the French Revolution, one of its greatest visual propagandists, and a regicide who voted for the execution of Louis XVI. He was a friend of Maximilien Robespierre, and became a deputy in the National Convention in 1792. He also became a member of the Comité de sûreté générale - a parliamentary committee of the Convention, formed that same year, which acted as a police agency during the Revolution - and was an active participant in the Reign of Terror. At the eventual fall and subsequent execution of Robespierre and several of his allies at the end of July 1794, David barely escaped meeting the same fate; he was out of the action nursing a "stomach pain." Nevertheless, he was arrested two days later, 2 August 1794. Imprisoned first in the Hôtel des Fermes, after a month he was transferred to the Palais du Luxembourg; he was eventually released on 28 December. But he was arrested again the following 28 May and was jailed at the Collège des Quatre-Nations - the present-day Institut de France - until 3 August 1795. (The dates given for this latter incarceration vary slightly depending on the source.) He was granted an amnesty on 26 October 1795.

Portrait of an unknown man. (In my opinion, this is one of the best of the group, but sadly unidentified.)

It was during the period of his second imprisonment in 1795 that David created this series of portraits of his fellow prisoners, fellow deputies of the National Convention, all arrested at the same time as the artist, and most of them former allies of Robespierre.

Jean-Baptiste-Louis Thirus (or Thyrus) de Pautrizel (25 August 1754 - 31 December 1836).

The inscription above reads: THIRUS DE PAUTRIZEL, Capitaine de Cavallerie en 1785, Représentant de la NATION FRANCAISE en 1794 e t 1795 - THIRUS DE PAUTRIZEL, Captain of the Cavalry in 1785, Representative of the FRENCH NATION in 1794 and 1795.

Portrait of an unknown man, sometimes identified as Edmond-Louis-Alexis Dubois de Crancé, dit Dubois-Crancé (14 October 1747 - 28 June 1814).

André Antoine Bernard de Jeuzines, dit Bernard de Saintes (21 June 1751 - 19 October 1818).

"Portrait of a Revolutionary." Unlike the other portraits here, this is only sketched out and remains apparently unfinished.

Jeanbon Saint-André (25 February 1749 - 10 December 1813).

The inscription above reads: Donum amicitiae. amoris Solatium. David faciebat in vinculis anno R.fr 3 (1795) messidoris 20 - The gift of friendship. The comfort of love. David did [this while] in chains in the third year of the French Republic (1795) Messidor 20 - the French Revolutionary calendar date of "Messidor 20" corresponds with 28 July 1795.

Joseph-Nicolas Barbeau du Barran (3 July 1761 - 16 May 1816).

Presumed portrait of Jean-Baptiste-Robert Lindet (2 May 1746 - 17 February 1825).

*

All of these share a similar format and medium, all executed on a round support and, as far as I can tell, all are approximately eighteen centimeters (seven and an eighth inches) in diameter, and all but one are done in pen and black India ink with gray wash, and traces of white body color, over pencil.