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A prolific draftsman, David often made multiple preliminary sketches for his sculptures. This schematic drawing outlines the composition of his Monument to Bonchamps (1824), a reduced bronze version of which is exhibited nearby. David references an ancient Greek sculpture of a river god from the recently discovered Elgin marbles (British Museum), which he had seen in London in 1816 (see below). He transforms that languidly reclining figure with the addition of a raised arm and a more upright orientation of the torso, a preview of the expressive urgency and instantaneity that characterize the finished statue.

This precise likeness of the Romantic writer A. W. von Schlegel (1767–1845) was executed from life during David’s second trip to Germany in 1834. Particular care is taken with Schlegel’s profile, which would be the crucial element of the corresponding portrait medallion. According to the sculptor, his motives for making the portrait were “the brutal ingratitude of young Germans for the old man, and … the interest I have gained from reading his works on art.”

David had little patience for the eroticized mythological nudes that jostled for attention each year at the Paris Salon. Accordingly, this elegant terracotta sketch depicts a woman in modern dress, possibly interrupted in the act of reading. Yet this apparently everyday moment may also be an update of the centuries-old pictorial convention of seated muses. For David, terracotta sketches were important records of an artist’s first thoughts. He presented them only to close friends who he believed could appreciate their suggestive, unfinished qualities.

“I pursue always my gallery of great men,” wrote David in 1830–31. “One sees me, running with my little slate, as if I were going to meet immortality.” The city of Angers was well known for its local slate quarries, and David used the stone as a support for his wax models. In this portrait of a Republican politician and prosecutor, the deep blue-green slate provides a lively contrast to the vibrant red of the tinted wax. David’s interest in portraiture reflects the dramatic increase in popularity of that genre in the early nineteenth century. For David, one of the most prolific portraitists of his age, the depiction of the human face was “the great career to which modern art is called.”

French painter (1787–1870)

One of the first works by David to enter an American collection, this privately commissioned portrait depicts the wife of Captain Henry Robinson (1782–1866), who operated a shipping firm between New York and Le Havre. David executed comparatively few busts of women, none of which exhibit the expressive intellect of his portraits of men. The bust of Ann Robinson is as coolly contained as the marble from which she is carved. David relished the depiction of hair, and Robinson’s up-to-date coiffure, with its curvilinear movement and twin ovular protuberances, is a memorable architectural confection. 

This statuette is a reduced version of David’s marble statue commemorating Charles-Artus de Bonchamps (1760– 1793), a royalist general who died in the aftermath of the French Revolution (Church of Saint Florent-le-Vieil, Maineet- Loire). A critical success at the Paris Salon of 1824, the sculpture depicts the mortally wounded general delivering his last words: a command for his troops to spare the lives of their Republican prisoners. The subject held personal significance for David, whose father had been among the captured soldiers. Produced by the famous Parisian goldsmith François-Désiré Froment- Meurice (1802–1855), the statuette was reportedly first commissioned in silver by the women of Anjou as a gift for Louise d’Artois, Duchess of Parma (1819–1864).

German dramatist and poet (1768–1823)

French novelist (1796–1881)

David made several international trips in order to meet and render homage to illustrious men and women. In 1834, during his second sojourn in Germany, he modeled a colossal portrait head of the poet and translator Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853). He also produced this depiction of the seated writer. David enjoyed conversing with his famous sitters, and Tieck is captured in the midst of a lively discussion. The intimate scale of the bronze and Tieck’s informal pose and contemporary costume combine to produce a thoroughly Romantic and modern “monument.” The only work David designed specifically as a statuette, it was cast in a very small bronze edition of three or four examples.

Italian musician and composer (1782–1840)

French poet and novelist (1796–1871)

“Gesture,” wrote David, “is the language of sculpture.” The sculptor’s maxim is well illustrated by this reduced bronze after his statue of Ambroise Paré, the famous French military doctor and pioneer of modern surgery. The challenge posed by the subject was to simultaneously communicate his qualities of action and thought. David’s elegant solution uses the expressive potential of the human body, creating a vibrant interplay between action and repose. With head bowed and the index finger of his right hand delicately raised to his chin and curling inward, Paré seems lost in contemplation. At the same time, his left hand hovers just above his surgical instruments, ready to seize them should the need arise.

This statuette is a reduced version of David’s gigantic, rousing bronze monument to Jean Bart (1650–1702), a French naval commander and privateer. Bart raises his sword (lost) as he tramples an enemy cannon at his feet. His sailor’s costume whips and curls in the wind, producing an energetic surface and delineating a human form that deviates from the idealized proportions of the classical nude body. David’s monuments were intended to educate and inspire and drew upon nationalism and local pride. The Jean Bart monument was erected in the privateer’s native Dunkirk, its inauguration on September 7, 1845, attended by a crowd of thousands. The statue continues to play a central role in that city’s annual civic rituals.

French painter (1822–1899)