Paris and Helen (Anonymous Tracing after d ’Hancarville)
ca. 1775–80
Medium
Pen and brown ink, on tracing paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 12 in. × 19 1/2 in. (30.5 × 49.5 cm) Framed: 14 1/2 × 21 3/4 in. (36.8 × 55.2 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Victoria Munroe, 2022
Accession Number
2022.415.1
About this artwork
This tracing attributed to Jacques-Louis David's circle represents a fascinating aspect of the artist's working methods during the 1770s, when he was absorbing the visual culture of classical antiquity that would transform his art. Created around 1775-80, the drawing reproduces an illustration from Pierre d'Hancarville's influential publication 'Antiquités étrusques, grecques et romaines tirées du cabinet de M. Hamilton' (1766-67), which documented ancient vases in the British ambassador's Naple...
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...