75 - Jacques-Louis DAVID (Paris 1748 – Brussels 1825)

Jacques-Louis DAVID (Paris 1748 – Brussels 1825) Double-sided preparatory study sheet for the painting *Mars Disarmed by Venus and the Three Graces*. On the front, a draped female figure; on the back, a study for an antique bed Black pencil. Annotated on the left margin of the mount: “This painting, begun in Paris in Year VIII, was completed in Brussels in the year 1822, during my exile.” 13.2 x 7.5 cm This drawing is a preparatory study for the painting *Mars Disarmed by Venus*, held at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels and dated “1824” (Inv. 3261), specifically for the central figure wearing a helmet behind Venus. Provenance: - Pen initials of David’s sons in the lower left: Jules David (Lugt 1437) and Eugène (Lugt 839). - Baron Gros Collection: anonymous sale at Antoine-Jean Gros on Monday, November 23, 1835 (No. 173 – Figure of a Draped Woman, sketch in Italian stone). Bibliography: Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat, Jacques-Louis David, 1748–1825: Catalogue Raisonné of Drawings, Milan, Leonardo Arte, 2002, vol. II, p. 1070, 1167, 1170, fig. 1674 (verso), fig. 1912 (recto), fig. 1919. The reverse side of this sheet features a study for the figure wearing the helmet in *Mars Disarmed by Venus*. An earlier study of the figure of Grace is sketched in David’s sketchbook No. 9 (see work cited above, fig. 1674, reverse). Similar sketches for the same figure can be found in David’s sketchbook no. 13 (opus cited above, fig. 1919). In the same sketchbook, a sheet (fig. 1912) features three studies of an ancient bed for Venus’s bed, similar to those on the reverse of our sheet.