Self-Portrait
Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) · 1794
David looks out at you with a fierce, slightly wary expression, a palette and brushes in his hands, his brown hair unruly and his olive coat with red lapels and white cravat quickly brushed in. He was forty-six. The background is a plain warm ochre, the light is direct, and only the head is fully worked up. Look closely at one cheek, which is swollen: David had a growth there, the result of a fencing wound in his youth, and it also affected his speech. He does not hide it. The eyes are the point of the picture, alert and stubborn.
The portrait is said to have been painted while David was imprisoned in Paris, in the Hôtel des Fermes, between September and December 1794, after the fall of Robespierre, whom he had supported. He left it unfinished and gave it to his pupil, the miniaturist Jean-Baptiste Isabey, whose son Eugène Isabey presented it to the Louvre in December 1852 together with Gérard's portrait of his father, which hangs in this room. On the back of the canvas its first museum number is still stencilled in ink.
Did You Know? David is thought to have painted this in prison, and he left it unfinished.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.