Portrait of Pierre Sériziat

Pierre Sériziat was the husband of Emilie Pécoul, the sister of David's wife, and a prosperous lawyer. David painted him, and Emilie with her small son in the pendant hanging nearby, during two stays at the family's country house at Saint-Ouen near Favières, east of Paris, in the spring and in August 1795. He had just been released from prison, where he had spent months after the fall of Robespierre, and these are the pictures of a man recovering his freedom. Look at the painting of the fabrics, the sheen of the boots and the crisp edge of the hat against the sky, and at the informality of the pose, so far from the marble stillness of his history paintings.

The two portraits were shown together at the Salon of 1795, which opened in October, under a single number in the catalogue. They stayed in the Sériziat family until the last of the sons died in 1868, and then passed to the collector Joseph Sosthène Moreau. The Louvre bought both in 1902. Pierre is painted on wood rather than canvas, which gives the surface its smooth, luminous finish. Seen side by side, the two panels are among the freshest and most affectionate portraits David ever made, painted in a moment of calm between the Terror and the Directory.

Did You Know? David painted this and the pendant of his sister-in-law within months of leaving prison after the fall of Robespierre.