Paris and Helen
Jacques Louis David
ca. 1782–86
Medium
Black chalk
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 in. × 11 3/4 in. (22.9 × 29.8 cm) Framed: 19 1/4 × 22 3/8 in. (48.9 × 56.8 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Victoria Munroe, 2022
Accession Number
2022.415.2
About the Artist
Jacques Louis David · 1748–1825
Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825), born in Paris on August 30 to a prosperous family, faced early tragedy when his father was killed in a duel around age nine. Raised by his mother's two architect uncles after his mother departed, David overcame family resistance to architecture and a facial tumor that hindered his speech and studies at the Collège des Quatre-Nations. He began training under the Roc...