Brutus, premier Consul

1789

Oil on canvas, 127 1/4 × 166 1/4 in. Musée du Louvre, Paris

A Roman consul who condemned his own sons has his back to their bodies as they are carried in: duty to the state set against family.

Look at

A column splits the canvas: Brutus sits in dark shadow at left, the women stand in full light at right.
The women's figures are a burst of diagonals and outflung arms; Brutus is folded and still.
Bright reds, yellows and whites on the right against browns and greys on the left.

A royal commission of 1786, first set as Coriolanus; David changed the subject in 1787 and showed it at the Salon of 1789.
Painted on the back, never relined: 'this picture was made in the time of the Revolution, the year 1789'.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain