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Painting of seated man in dark coat

A light-skinned man sits in a wooden chair with green upholstery. He is visible from the knees up. He has short, messy red hair and brown eyes that look directly at the viewer. His complexion is pale and a bit pink. He wears a white shirt and cravat under a black double-breasted coat with wide lapels. His hands rest on a piece of red-and-white plaid fabric in his lap. He holds a small, dark, circular object in his left hand. There are yellow inscriptions in the upper corners, as well as a signature and date in the lower left corner.

Gallery Text

Following Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815, David was banished from France. He settled in Brussels, where he painted this portrait of Sieyès (1748– 1836), a fellow exile. Sieyès had been an early proponent of the claims of the Third Estate, or the French commoners, at the outset of the Revolution in 1789. Though he lacked distinction as an orator, he remained a figure of great influence throughout the Revolution, and was instrumental in bringing Bonaparte to power in 1799. His subsequent relations with Napoleon were equivocal, though he remained in favor until he voted for the emperor’s deposition in 1814. This portrait is a restrained testament to an extraordinary depth of shared experience: both men were survivors of nearly thirty years of political turmoil in which they played considerable roles before facing the overthrow of their fortunes and the debasement of their ideals.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.229
People
Jacques-Louis David, French (Paris 1748 - 1825 Brussels)
Title
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (1748-1836)
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1817
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/299809

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2200, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, The Emergence of Romanticism in Early Nineteenth-Century France
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
97.8 x 74 cm (38 1/2 x 29 1/8 in.)
frame: 114.3 x 92.1 x 8.9 cm (45 x 36 1/4 x 3 1/2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.l.: L. David/ Bruxelles/1817
  • inscription: u.l., paint: EMM.JOS. SIEYES.
  • inscription: u.r., paint: AETATIS SUAE 69
  • exhibition label: [1935], back of stretcher, paper: Exposition du 3e centenaire de l'Academie Français. No. 3. Title: Portrait de Sieyes. Nom d'auteur: David. Vicomte de Berenger, 195 B' S' Germain
  • exhibition label: [label from "David et ses eleves" exhibition]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Jacques-Louis David, painted, 1817; to Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès; to Madame Combes, 1856, by descent; to Henri Vicomte de Bérenger, 1913, sold [through Birnbaum via André Weil], to; Grenville Lindall Winthrop, 1936, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.229
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • Pierre Alexandre Coupin, Essai sur J. L. David, peintre d'histoire, ancien membre de l'Institut, officier de la Legion-d'honneur, J. Renouard (Paris, France, 1827), pp. 42, 57
  • J. L. Jules David, Le Peintre Louis David: Souvenirs et documents inedits (Paris, France, 1880), etching after the painting repr. v. II; text v. I, p. 649
  • Prosper Dorbec, "David Portraitiste", Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1907), vol. XXVII, no. 1, pp. 324-325
  • David et ses élèves, exh. cat., Petit Palais, Paris (Paris, France, 1913), no. 62
  • Richard Cantinelli, Jacques-Louis David, 1748-1825, Les Editions G. van Oest (Paris, France and Brussels, Belgium, 1930), no. 144
  • G. Brunon Guardia, "Paris et la Revolution au Musée Carnavalet", Beaux Arts Magazine (March 1931), vol. 9, no. 3, ill. p. 18
  • Chinese Sculpture, Bronzes, Jades, Paintings and Drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art; selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1943), p. 3
  • "Sixteen Reproductions", Harvard Alumni Bulletin (Cambridge, MA, January 8, 1944), vol. XLVI, pp. 217-20
  • [Unidentified article], The Christian Science Monitor (January 8, 1944), repr.
  • [Untitled article], Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, January 8, 1944), vol. XLVI, repr.
  • "Paintings from the Winthrop Collection", Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, March 1945), vol. X, no. 3, pp. 98-103, p. 101, repr.
  • Azariah Boody Sias, The Sias Family in America 1677 to 1952: The first 275 Years, Florida Press, Inc. (Orlando FL, 1952), repr. on frontispiece
  • George Levitine, "David's 'Sieyès' in the Fogg Museum and Girodet's 'De Sèze Méditant la Defense du Roi'", The Burlington Magazine (October 1953), p. 335
  • S. Lane Faison, Jr., A Guide to the Art Museums of New England, Harcourt, Brace and Co. (New York, 1958), p. 118, repr. p. 118, fig. 16
  • Gordon C. Aymar, The Art of Portrait Painting, Chilton Book Company (Philadelphia, PA, 1967), repr. pl. 32
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), no. 83, p. 112, repr. p. 113
  • Agnes Mongan, Harvard Honors Lafayette, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975), no. 40, pp. 115-117, repr. p. 116
  • Seiji Oshima, David, Shinchosha (Tokyo, Japan, 1976), p. 78, repr. in b/w
  • Anita Brookner, Jacques-Louis David, Chatto & Windus (London, England, 1980), repr. in b/w, fig. 111
  • Matthias Bleyl, Das Klassizistische Porträt, Verlag Peter Lang (Frankfurt am Main and Bern, Germany, 1982), pp. 92-93; repr. in b/w as abb. 10
  • Antoine Schnapper and Arlette Sérullaz, David: Témoin de son Temps, Alpine Fine Arts Collection, Ltd. (New York, NY, 1982), repr. in color, fig. 181, p. 286, text, pps. 283, 286
  • Luc de Nanteuil, Jacques Louis David, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1985), repr. as color plate 46; text p. 162
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 197, p. 173, ill.
  • John Leighton, Jacques-Louis David: Portrait of Jacobus Blauw, exh. cat., National Gallery (London, England, 1987), repr. in b/w fig. 13, p. 17
  • Régis Michel, David, L'art et le politique, Decouvertes Gallimard/Reunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 1988), repr. in color p. 123
  • François Furet, La Revolution de Turgot a Jules Ferry 1770-1880, Histoire de France, Hachette (Paris, France, 1988), repr. in color p. 160
  • Antoine Schnapper and Arlette Sérullaz, ed., Jacques-Louis David, 1748-1825, exh. cat., Editions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 1989), repr. in b/w fig. 142, p. 513
  • Warren Roberts, Jacques-Louis David, Revolutionary Artist, The University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC, 1989), pp. 51, 58, 64, 133, 191, 198; repr. in b/w fig. 87
  • Bernard Noël, L. David, Crown Publishers Inc. (New York, NY, 1989), repr. in color p. 87
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 66, color plate; pp. 104, 221, repr. b/w cat. no. 257
  • Jean-Louis Ferrier, ed., L'Aventure de l'Art au XIXe Siecle, Chene-Hachette (Paris, France, 1991), repr. in color p. 157
  • Dorothy Johnson, "L'Experience de l'exil: l'art de David à Bruxelles", David contre David : actes du colloque organisé au musée du Louvre par le servic (Paris, France, 1993), p. 1028; repr. p. 1140 as fig. 233
  • Dorothy Johnson, Jacques-Louis David: Art in Metamorphosis, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ, 1993), pp. 222-224
  • Shigenobu Kimura, Art and Revolution, Kodansha (Tokyo, Japan, 1994), repr. in color p. 93
  • Barbara Maria Stafford, Artful Science: Enlightenment, Entertainment,and the Eclipse of Visual Education, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA, 1994), repr. in b/w p. 120, fig. 92
  • Jacques-Louis David: Portrait de Ramel, auct. cat., Maitre Binoche (Paris, France, October 18 1995), p. 26; repr. p. 33
  • Aileen Ribeiro, The Art of Dress: Fashion in England and France 1750 to 1820, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1995), pp. 108-109, repr. in b/w fig. 116
  • James Cuno, Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Ivan Gaskell, and William W. Robinson, Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of Collecting, ed. James Cuno, Harvard University Art Museums and Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 1996), pp. 184-5
  • Dorothy Johnson, Jacques-Louis David: The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis, J. Paul Getty Museum (Santa Monica, CA, 1997), pp. 36-7, fig. 26
  • Masterpieces of world art : Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1997
  • Sophie Monneret, David et le Néoclassicisme, Editions Pierre Terrail (Paris, France, 1998), p. 189
  • [Reproduction only], Studies in Romanticism, The Graduate School, Boston University (Boston, Fall 1999)., repr. on cover in b/w
  • Simon Lee, David, Phaidon Books (London, England, 1999), no. 187, p. 294, repr.
  • Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, Necklines: The Art of Jacques-Louis David after the Terror, Yale University Press (New Haven and London, 1999), p. 35; repr. p. 34 as fig. 12
  • Gary Tinterow and Philip Conisbee, Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, 1999), pp. 6, 7
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), no. 21, pp. 89-91, repr. in color
  • Christopher Riopelle, Harvard's Winthrop Collection: Nineteenth-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, exh. cat., National Gallery Company Limited (London, 2003), p. 25, cat. 12, ill.
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), no. 21, pp. 97-99, repr. in color
  • Robert Dupin, "La Collection Winthrop", Universalia, Encyclopaedia Universalis (Paris, France, 2004), pp. 343-344, p. 344
  • Friedrich Heer and Sabine Freitag, Für eine gerechte Welt: grosse Dokumente der Menschheit, Primus (Darmstadt, 2004), detail repr. p. 114
  • Philippe Bordes, Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile, exh. cat., Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, 2005), p. IX; pp. 293-295, repr. in b/w as fig. 100
  • Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, "The Self in Exile: David's Portrait of Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes", David after David: Essays on the Later Work, ed. Mark Ledbury (2007), pp. 232-251, repr. in color Plate 10, repr. in b/w p. 236
  • Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 131, repr.
  • Joël Malrieu, "David et ses doubles: le portrait de Sieyès", Bulletin Jacques-Louis David (2014), 4, pp. 15-58, pp. 29-41 and repr. in color, p. 31
  • Jonathan Israel, Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History Of The French Revolution From The Rights Of Man To Robespierre, Princeton University Press (New Jersey, 2014), repr. as fig. 3(b) on p. 80
  • Frauke V. Josenhans, "(Re)Defining the "I" in Exile", Artists in Exile: Expressions of Loss and Hope, Yale University Art Gallery and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven, 2017), pp. 184-207, pp. 186,189, repr. p. 186 as fig. 1
  • Dorle Bennohr and Christoph Meyer, ed., Horizonte, Bildungshaus Schulbuchverlage GmbH (Brunswick, 2017), pp. 191-192; repr. as fig. M15 on p. 191

Exhibition History

  • Exposition David et ses elèves, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris, Paris, 04/07/1913 - 06/09/1913
  • Troisième centenaire de l'Académie française, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 06/01/1935 - 06/30/1935
  • Chinese sculpture, bronzes, jades, paintings and drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art : selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/01/1943 - 02/28/1944
  • Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 01/23/1969 - 03/31/1969
  • Harvard Honors Lafayette, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 12/03/1975 - 03/12/1976
  • Master Paintings from the Fogg Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/13/1977 - 08/31/1977
  • Masterpieces of European Art, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 06/22/1985 - 09/15/1985
  • France and the Portrait, 1799-1870, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/03/1994 - 01/29/2002
  • A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, 03/15/2003 - 05/26/2003; National Gallery, London, 06/25/2003 - 09/14/2003; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004
  • Re-View: S424-426 Western Art from 1560 to 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/16/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • Ancient to Modern, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/31/2012 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 2200 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Collection Highlights
  • Google Art Project

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu