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Dimensions: measurements note 155 by 212 mm
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Provenance: Eugène David (L. 839) and Jules David (L. 1437);
Sale, David, Paris, 17 April 1826 and following days;
Sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 29-30 November 1989, lot 76
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Exhibited: Paris, Galerie Patrick Perrin, Dessins de maîtres IV, De Callot à Tiepolo, 1990, no. 29, reproduced
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Literature: Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat, Jacques-Louis David 1748-1825, Catalogue raisonné des dessins, Milan 2002, vol. II, p. 763, no.1222, reproduced
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Notes: David was in Rome from November 1775 to July 1780, staying at the Académie de France, which at that time was housed in the Palazzo Mancini, in Via del Corso. He drew extensively, copying classical sculptures and antiquities, making copies after old masters, and recording landscapes in Rome and outside the city. Once he returned to France, he mounted the drawings in two albums, organized by subjects. After David's death in 1825, it appears that his sons Jules and Eugène broke up the original albums and reorganized them into twelve different albums, probably to make them more saleable. At this time they must have added their paraphes to confirm the authenticity of the drawings (see Provenance). The present sheet is part of a number of isolated drawings once part of one of the albums or taken out before the sale in 1826. For a complete and fascinating discussion of the composition and the history of these albums, see Literature.
A calque of the present sheet was sold in Lyon, 9 June 1967 (see Literature).
