The Marriage of Jason and Medea (recto); Composition study of an antique scene (verso)

This sheet comes from an album, now dismantled, consisting mainly of studies after the antique and dating from the artist’s sojourn in Rome between 1775 and 1780. The subject, not previously identified, corresponds very closely – but in reverse – to a 16th Century engraving by the Master of the Die with the same inscription also found underneath David’s drawing (A. von Bartsch, Le Peintre graveur, XV, Vienna, 1813, p. 204, no. 28). The print must be based on a relief depicting the marriage of Jason and Medea of a sarcophagus, such as one at the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Museo Nazionale Romano, Roma. Here reproduced and described for the first time, the drawing on the verso is more freely sketched and seems to represent a person’s death, a subject perhaps taken from ancient history. It may be an original composition by David.

The album to which the sheet originally belonged, along with eleven others of similar content, was offered for the first time at auction upon David’s death, on 17 April 1826 (for David's albums, see B. Perronet in Jacques Louis David. Radical Draftsman, exhib. cat., New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022, pp. 90-98). Two of them were acquired by the Musée du Louvre when again offered for sale on 11 March 1835, following the death of David’s widow (inv. 26098-26118; see A. Sérullaz, Inventaire général des dessins. École française du Musée du Louvre. Jacques-Louis David, Paris, 1991, nos. 1-166, ill.). At the time of this second sale, David’s sons Jules and Eugène had signed with their initials every single sheet in the albums, including the present one, as proof of their authenticity. Today, other albums from the group can be found in the Harvard University Art Museums (inv. 1943.1815.12.1-34) and at the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (inv. NM 18-123/1969; see P. Bjurström, French Drawings. Nineteenth Century, Stockholm, 1986, nos. 1385-1490, ill.).