President and Fellows of Harvard College

© President and Fellows of Harvard College
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© President and Fellows of Harvard College
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© President and Fellows of Harvard College
Gallery Text
Following Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815, David
was banished from France. He settled in Brussels,
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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
banner, painting
Date
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1817
Culture
French
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.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]
inscription: u.l., paint: EMM.JOS. SIEYES.
Provenance
Jacques-Louis David, painted, 1817; to Emmanuel
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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
[email protected]
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
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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, PreColumbian 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, NY, 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, Gridley McKim-Smith, and Joan
R. Mertens, Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a
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Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA,
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
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
Kristin A. Mortimer, Harvard University Art Museums: A
Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art
Museums/Abbeville Press (Cambridge, MA; New York,
NY, 1985), no. 197, p. 173, ill.
Luc de Nanteuil, Jacques Louis David, Harry N. Abrams,
Inc. (New York, NY, 1985), repr. as color plate 46; text p.
162
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
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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 (U.S.) (New
Haven, CT and London, England, 1995), pp. 108-109,
repr. in b/w fig. 116
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James Cuno, Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of
Collecting, Harvard University Art Museums/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
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 (U.S.)
(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
(New York, NY, 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. 9710 of 13
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 (U.S.) (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, ed., Harvard Art Museum/
Handbook, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, MA,
2008), p. 131, repr.
Joël Malrieu, "David et ses doubles: le portrait de
Sieyès", Bulletin Jacques-Louis David (2014), 4, pp. 1558, pp. 29-41 and repr. in color, p. 31
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, PreColumbian 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,
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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, 11/01/2014
Subjects and Contexts
Collection Highlights
Google Art Project
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff
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but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently
revised and enhanced. For more information please
contact the Division of European and American Art at
[email protected]
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