Les Sabines

1799

Oil on canvas, 151 1/2 × 205 1/2 in. Musée du Louvre, Paris

Women throw themselves between their husbands and fathers to stop a battle: a history picture about ending a fight rather than winning one.

Look at

The woman in white, arms flung wide, stands between the two main warriors, whose shield and spear close in on her from either side.
Clear outlines and smooth modelling make each nude body read like a statue.
The figures in front are lit evenly and sharply, while smoke and haze soften the fortress behind.

Begun without a commission and painted in a Louvre studio from 1796; finished in 1799.
Shown from December 1799 to 1805 in a paying exhibition, facing a large mirror; sold to Louis XVIII in 1819.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain