Jacques Louis David, Marie Antoinette on the Way to the Guillotine, 1793, Pen drawing, 6 x 4.5 in, Louvre, Paris Jacque Louis David was one of the most influential painters of his time for a couple reasons. His political activity was far beyond anyone else in the Academy at the time, at least as far as political activity not linked to the crown, like the Academy itself. He also was the founder of neoclassical art in France, as he brought back the style after winning the Prix de Rome, and bringing back the style he had learned there. He sided with the Jacobin Club, who were the group that followed Robespierre, and led the Terror in France. While the revolution was coming to fruition, and the monarchy was about to fall, David made a sketch of Marie Antoinette as she was brought to the guillotine. This sketch is David’s triumphant depiction of the antithesis of all that he had detested in the French Monarchy and art at the time. David didn’t have the best relationship with the Crown over the years, mostly through his work with the Academy, which was an extension of the monarchy. Early in his time as a painter, he tried for 4 years to win the Prix de Rome. His first 3 years trying, different issues arose, which David attributed to the judges. He became so fed up with the system he was trying to work within that he attempted to kill himself through starving at one point. Finally, he won on his fourth year, and was able to visit Rome and study the craft. (1) This is where many of his ideals came from, not only in art, but possibly politics as well. He fell in love with the classical style, which he had previously not paid much mind too. The style that he ended up adopting changed how French art was made. He developed the neoclassical style as a rejection of the popular rococo style. He focused on the masculine, where the rococo was seen as the feminine. Instead of flirtatious elites inhabiting mystical lands, he focused on depicting stories with a purpose through art, and was very aware of the impact of his work. Jacques Louis David, The Death of Marat, 1793, Oil on Canvas, 65” x 50 3/8”, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts at Brussels This knowledge of how to create scenes with a message is what made him perfect for his role in France as a propagandist. As the scholar Henrik Bering said, “For the Revolution, David painted… Jean-Paul Marat, the venomous pamphleteer whose thirst for blood was insatiable and who was killed in his bath by Charlotte Corday. But in David’s version, Marat is transformed into a Christ-like figure.” (2) This piece of propaganda was so well made Marat became a martyr, as “The painting was carried in a solemn procession through the streets.” (3) David knew how to draw people’s attention and make links between the past and the present to give meaning to his works. When he made the sketch “Marie Antoinette on the Way to the Guillotine”, it was his moment of triumph. He had been part of the Jacobin movement, and a year previously he was elected to the National Convention. With that power he had voted for the death of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. In one sketch, he was able to depict this triumph for him in a brilliant and unique way. It is the simplicity of this sketch is what truly makes it a statement. He uses just as many lines as he needs to to create the image, essentially stripping it of all frivolity that was seen during the rococo, the style that was popular under the monarchy. The depiction shows one of the largest pop-culture icons at the time, but stripped of all that made her so recognizable and influential. The depiction shows her in basic garments with her hands bound and hair cut. Her power had come through her appearance in this society, as she was an outsider who was consistently judged on how she presented herself. Marie Antoinette had only one way of achieving power in the position she was forced into, and that was through her appearance. She surrounded herself with elaborate decorations in the palaces she lived in, as well as focusing on setting the trends in fashion, always having to be ahead of all other citizens lest she look un-queenly. This led to a few notable styles that she became associated with. Firstly, she popularized the pouf hairstyle, where women would use a mixture of wig and actual hair to create elaborate designs in their hair that would extend upwards. This was a defining symbol of who she was, which made her cut hair stand out even more in David’s sketch. As far as her clothing fashion was concerned, she was also known for popularizing such styles as the panniers. These large ostentatious ovals were used to widen a dress at the hips, and was a great example of what David saw as the frivolity of this class of elites who were aided by the monarchy. Marie Antoinette’s appearance was such a part of popular culture that when she came out with the painting “Marie Antoinette en Chemise”, a depiction of her in the equivalent of a nightgown, it created such an uproar that she had to have the painting redone. Marie Antoinette's fashion and examples of the Rococo style She was also surrounded by rococo interior decorating, which was one of the most lavish styles, where almost all space is filled with some form of design that was made to look royal. Much of this style includes gilding, and was packed with details. It was lavish, and it was reminiscent of the rococo style of painting, with a kind of out-of-this-world feeling. It, like the style of painting, was designed for elites, and was not subtle about it. When David sketched Marie Antoinette, he made sure to depict the antithesis of all that he had seen the monarchy as. His use of minimalism to create this sketch shows his inherent ability for propaganda. Elizabeth Wilson once described his work as a propagandist, saying, “But for a few remarkable years he was also the propaganda minister of the French Revolution--the man who could turn an unruly mob, ready to kill for a loaf of bread, into tearful patriots willing to die for the cause. On demand he produced state funerals and martyr portraits, multimedia pageants for casts of thousands--all designed to keep the revolutionary faith alive, even when the bodies were piling up ten deep beside la guillotine.” (3) He knew exactly what to depict, and when, to stir up social political unrest within the masses. After the revolution he had even said that he would try to no longer attach himself to man, but to principle, yet he ended up going back on that as soon as Napoleon enters the political arena, as David said, “Finally here is a man to whom altars would have been erected in ancient times. Yes, my dear friend, Napoleon is my hero.” (2) Most of what he did in his life seemed to be politically motivated. He was against the monarchy not because it was the best for his career, but because that is what he believed in. He would have probably done fine if the Academy was still in place, as even though he was not always respected, people quickly had seen his genius. He instead was drawn towards a republican regime, possibly because of his classical influence from Rome. He also was an idealist, and his detest for the monarchy through the years as the Academy treated him poorly might have been a motivating factor for him to change the entire landscape of art in France, as he quickly shut down the Academy. This shutdown was him showing his thoughts on how the academy had been consistently putting out art in the rococo style, which was all that David stood against with his neoclassical style. This mirrors the sketch of Marie Antoinette, which was David’s statement against the monarchy and everything it stood for, from the frivolity of the elites, to the Academy Royal and its obsession with the rococo. David was a man of his beliefs, and with this sketch of the last moments of the monarchy, he was able to provide something with so few lines that told so much. Footnotes: (1) Jaques Louis David Biography. Accessed May 09, 2017. http://www.jacqueslouisdavid.org/biography.html. (2) Bering, Henrik. "The master propagandist." New Criterion 34, no. 10 (June 206): 30-32. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed May 9, 2017) (3) Wilson, Elizabeth Barkley. "Jacques-Louis David." Smithsonian 29, 5, p. 80, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 May 2017
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