Madame David
1813
Painter, French, 1748 - 1825


West Building Main Floor, Gallery 56
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 72.9 x 59.4 cm (28 11/16 x 23 3/8 in.)
framed: 93.6 x 79.7 x 9.5 cm (36 7/8 x 31 3/8 x 3 3/4 in.) -
Accession
1961.9.14
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Bequeathed in 1826 by the sitter, Marguerite-Charlotte David, née Pécoul [1764-1826],[1] to her daughter, Baronne Claude-Marie Meunier, née Laure-Emilie-Félicité David [1786-1863], Calais;[2] her daughter-in-law, Baronne Jules Meunier, née Pauline Derode [1824-1903], Calais; the artist's great-granddaughter, Mme. Marius Bianchi, née Mathilde Jeanin, by 1913;[3] her daughter, Caroline-Pauline-Thérèse, Comtesse Joachim Murat [1870-1940], by 1930;[4] her sister, Renée, vicomtesse de Fleury [1869-1948]; (Pierre Cailleux, Paris), 1948-1953.[5] Jointly owned from 1953 by (Otto Wertheimer [Galerie les Tourettes], Paris) and (M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York);[6] sold 1954 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[7] gift 1961 to NGA.
[1] In a chronological list of his works which David drew up in about 1815 ("Liste B"), Madame David figures in next-to-last place as "Le portrait de Me David mon épouse" (Schnapper, Antoine, et al., Jacques-Louis David 1748-1825, exh. cat. Louvre and Versailles, Paris, 1989: 20).
[2] Mme David's last will, dated 6 March 1826 (Paris, Archives Nationales, Minutier Central, CVIII, 1013; Wildenstein, Daniel, and Guy Wildenstein, Documents complémentaires au catalogue de l'oeuvre de Louis David, Paris, 1973: 239, no. 2045), and the posthumous inventory of her possessions, dated 27 June 1826 (CVIII, 1014; Wildenstein and Wildenstein 1973: 247, no. 2071; Schnapper et al. 1989: 636), both mention this portrait and indicate that it had been bequeathed to Baronne Emilie Meunier, her daughter.
[3] David et ses elèves, Petit Palais, Paris, 1913: no. 56.
[4] Richard Cantinelli, Jacques-Louis David, Paris, 1930: 113, no. 132.
[5] The painting was lent by Cailleux to the 1952-1953 exhibition Meisterwerke de französichen Malerei von Poussin bis Ingres, shown at the Kunsthalle, Hamberg, and the Alter Pinakothek, Munich.
[6] M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Stock book no. 10, p. 115, no. A5477, and Sales book no. 17, both as Portrait of Mme David (copies in NGA curatorial files).
[7] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1314.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1846
Exposition au profit de l'Association des Artistes, Peintres, et Sculpteurs, Bazar Bonne Nouvelle, Paris, 1846, no. 11
1913
David et ses elèves, Petit Palais, Paris, 1913, no. 56, repro.
1914
Exposition d'art français du XIX siècle, Musée Royal de Copenhague, Copenhagen, 1914, no. 65
1948
David. Exposition en honneur du deuxième centenaire de sa naissance, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1948, no. 68
David. Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings, The Arts Council of Great Britain, Tate Gallery, London, and City Art Gallery, Manchester, 1948-1949, no. 27, repro.
1949
Exposition des magiciens de la peinture, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1949, no. 13
1950
Cent portraits de femmes, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 1950, no. 25c, repro.
1952
Peintres de portraits, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1952, no. 16
Meisterwerke de französichen Malerie von Poussin bis Ingres, Kunsthalle, Hamburg and Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 1952, no. 14, repro.
1989
Jacques-Louis David 1748-1825, Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1989-1990, no. 213, repro.
2005
Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, 2005, no. 23, repro., as Portrait of Marguerite-Charlotte David, née Pécoul.
Bibliography
1824
Notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de M. J.-L. David. Paris, 1824: 21.
1826
Mahul, A. Annuaire necrologique, ou complement annuel et continuation de toutes les biographies ou dictionnnaires historiques....Année 1825. Paris, 1826: 141.
Th. A. Vie de David, Premier Peintre de Napoléon. Brussels, 1826: 242 (Paris edition, 1826: 166).
1827
Coupin, P.A. "Essai sur J.-L. David, peintre d'histoire." Revue encyclopédique. 61 vols. Paris, 1819-1835: 31(1926):56.
1846
Thoré, Theophile. Le Salon de 1846. Paris, 1846: 12.
1855
Delécluze, Etienne-Jean. Louis David, son école et son temps. Paris, 1855: 354.
1864
Seigner, Jean du. "Appendice à la notice de P. Chaussard sur L. David." Revue universelle des arts XVIII (1864): 367.
1880
David, Jules. Le peintre Louis David, 1748-1825. Paris, 1880: 2320-231, 487, 648.
1904
Saunier, Charles. Louis David. Biographie critique. Paris, 1904: 107.
1913
Pauli, Gustav. "David im Petit Palais." Kunst und Kunstler XI: 541-550.
Rosenthal, Leon. "L'Exposition de David et de ses élèves au Petit Palais." Revue de l'Art Ancien et Moderne XXXIII (1913): 342.
1930
Cantinelli, Richard. Jacques-Louis David. Paris and Brussels, 1930: 81, 113, no. 132, no. 75, repro.
1940
Holma, Klaus. David, son évolution et son style. Paris, 1940: 90, 129, no. 138.
1943
Maret, Jacques. Louis David. Monaco, 1943: pl. 85.
Brest, Jorge Romero. Jacques-Louis David. Buenos Aires, 1943: 23.
1948
Florisoone, Michel. David. Exposition en l'honneur du deuxième centenaire de sa naissance. Exh. cat. Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris, 1948: no. M.O. 68.
Cooper, Douglas. "Jacques-Louis David: A Bi-Centenary Exhibition."The Burlington Magazine 90: 278, repro. frontispiece.
1954
Hautecoeur, Louis. Louis David. Paris, 1954: 230.
1956
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 68, no. 23, repro.
Einstein, Lewis."Looking at French Eighteenth Century Pictures in Washington." Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6th ser., 47. no. 1048-1049 (May-June 1956): 245, 250, repro.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 97.
1959
Wildenstein, Georges. "Les Davidiens à Paris sous la Restauration." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6e période, 53 (April 1959): 242-245, repro.
1963
Cailleux 1912-1962. Album du jubilé de la Galerie Cailleux. Paris, 1963: unpaginated, repro.
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 322, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 38.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:400, color repro.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 31, repro.
1973
Wildenstein, Daniel, and Guy Wildenstein. Documents complémentaires au catalogue de l'oeuvre de Louis David. Paris, 1973: no. 2071.
Verbraeken, René. Jacques-Louis David jugé par ses contemporains et par la posterité. Paris, 1973: 23, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 94, repro.
Burney, Fanny. Joyce Hemlow, ed. The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame d'Arblay). 6 vols. Oxford, 1975: 623-626.
1977
Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 358-359, fig. 330.
1980
Brookner, Anita. Jacques-Louis David. London, 1980: 169-170, repro.
Schnapper, Antoine. David témoin de son temps. Fribourg, 1980: 265, repro. (English translation, David, New York, 1980: 265, repro.).
1983
Gassier, Pierre. Léopold Robert. Neuchâtel, 1983: 15 (repro. of Robert's engraving), 20.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 418, no. 594, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 116, repro.
de Nanteuil, Luc. Jacques-Louis David. New York, 1985: 150, repro.
1989
Lévecque, Jean-Jacques. La vie et l'oeuvre de Jacques-Louis David. Courbevoie-Paris, 1989: 210, repro.
Schnapper, Antoine, et al. Jacques-Louis David 1748-1825. Exh. cat. Louvre and Versailles. Paris, 1989: 484, no. 213, repro.
Roberts, Warren. Jacques-Louis David, Revolutionary Artst. Chapel Hill, 1989: 171, repro.
1998
Ternois, Daniel. Ingres: Monsieur Bertin. Paris, 1998: 38-39, repro.
Monneret, Sophie. David et le Neoclassicisme. Terrail, 1998: 140-146, repro. 145.
2000
Eitner, Lorenz. French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I: Before Impressionism. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 208-213, color repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 352, no. 283, color repro.
Inscriptions
lower left: L. David. 1813.
Wikidata ID
Q15615000