823 - DAVID, Jacques-Louis (1748–1825). Signed autograph document (11 lines with the signature “David de l’Institut nat.”). Paris, 4 Fructidor, Year 7 [August 21, 1799]. ¼ p. on 1 p., in-4.

DAVID, Jacques-Louis (1748–1825). Signed autograph document (11 lines with the signature “David de l’Institut nat.”). Paris, 4 Fructidor, Year 7 [August 21, 1799]. ¼ p. on 1 p., in-4. A lengthy note in support of the painter and sculptor Claude Gautherot (1769–1825), his student, so that he might occupy a residence that had initially been loaned to him for the purpose of painting a picture. It appears in the margin of an autograph letter signed by Claude GAUTHEROT, “painter and pupil of David,” containing a plea: in debt and with a collarbone injury, he claims the right to retain the lodging lent to him “eighteen months” ago. He argues: a fervent defender of his country’s “glory,” a “republican artist” wounded in the service of France, a recipient of a state pension, and the father of three children, etc. David, in glowing terms, adds in the margin: “[…] what the aforementioned Gautherot cannot say himself is that, regardless of his truly great civic qualities, he possesses the most promising aptitude for the art of painting, and that he is among the few whom nature has chosen to honor their country and pass on its achievements to posterity." Gautherot had joined Jacques-Louis David’s studio in 1787.