Villa in the Campagna
1775–80
Medium
Brush and gray washes, over graphite, on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
16.9 × 22.3 cm (6 11/16 × 8 13/16 in.)
Classification
brush and ink
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
149045
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
After several unsuccessful attempts, Jacques-Louis David finally won the highly coveted Prix de Rome in 1774. The award subsidized his first trip to the city in 1775 to study Classical art and architecture, a necessity for any ambitious painter of the period. Over the next five years, David absorbed and recorded everything he saw in hundreds of drawings, principally in black chalk, sometimes heightened with wash. He copied ancient Greek and Roman art as well as work by Old Masters such as Raphae...
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...