The Departure of Marcus Attilius Regulus for Carthage

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Prints and Drawings

1785/86

Jacques Louis David
French, 1748-1825

In David’s powerful study, the defeated Roman general Marcus Atilius Regulus, refusing the entreaties of his wife, insists on being sent back to Carthage to be executed. The relief-like drawing, seemingly carved from stone, boldly combines a sober setting and technique (black ink, white wash) with extreme theatricality, like a scene performed onstage.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Jacques Louis David
Title: The Departure of Marcus Attilius Regulus for Carthage
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1775–1786
Medium: Pen and black ink and brush and black ink wash and opaque white watercolor with black chalk and touches of brown watercolor on blue laid paper
Dimensions: Sight: 31 × 40.9 cm (12 1/4 × 16 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Clarence Buckingham Collection
Reference Number: 1976.58
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/50397/manifest.json

A. Cantaloube, “Les dessins de Louis David,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts (September 1860), pp. 301-304.
Jacques Louis Jules David, Le Peintre Louis David (Paris, 1880), pp. 37, 654.
R. L. Herbert, David, Voltaire, ‘Brutus’ and the French Revolution (London, 1972), pp. 18, 54-55.
Daniel and Georges Wildenstein, Documents Complementaires au Catalogue de l’Oeuvre de J. L. David (Paris, 1973), pp. 237, and 244-45.
C. Selss, “Some Recent Research on Jacques-Louis David,” Burlington Magazine 117 (December 1975), pp. 811-813.
Harold Joachim, French Drawings and Sketchbooks of the Eighteenth Century (Chicago, 1977), no. 1B11.
A. Schnapper, David témoin de son temps (Fribourg, 1980), p. 89.
L. de Nanteuil, Jacques-Louis David, (Paris, 1985), p. 57.
J. J. Lévêque, La vie et l’oeuvre de Jacques-Louis David (Paris, 1989), p. 17.
B. Nöel, David (Vaduz, 1989), p. 6.
Ph. Bordes, “Jacques-Louis David,” Burlington Magazine CXXXIV: 1073 (February 1990), p. 155.
Pierre Rosenberg, From Drawing to Painting: Poussin, Watteau, Fragonard, David, & Ingres (Princeton, N.J., 2000), pp. 163-164 (ill.).
Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat, Jacques-Louis David 1748-1825: Catalogue raisonné des dessins, I (Milan, 2002), pp. 92-93, no. 77 (ill.).

The Art Institute of Chicago, “Great Drawings from The Art Institute of Chicago: The Harold Joachim Years 1958-1983,” July 24-September 30, 1985, pp. 106-107, cat. 45 (ill.), cat. by Martha Tedeschi; traveled to the Saint Louis Art Museum, January-May 1986.
Paris, Musée du Louvre, “Jacques-Louis David,” October 26, 1989-February 12, 1990, cat. 78.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Gods and (Super)heroes: Drawing in an Age of Revolution”, November 16, 2017 - April 1, 2018.
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman”, Febuary 14 - May 15, 2022, p. 136 (ill), 137-39, cat. 29, cat. by Perrin Stein, et. al.

By descent to the artist’s son, Eugène [Lugt 839]; sold, April 17, 1826, J. L. David studio sale, lot 53 to M. Musigny for 1963 francs [Paris 1989]. Possibly sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, November 21-22, 1859, M. Mayor sale, lot 41. Possibly sold, May 2, 1863, lot 131. Édouard Desperet (1804-1865) [Lugt 721]; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 7-13, 1865, Desperet sale, lot 537, to le Blanc for 54 francs [Rosenberg and Prat 2002]. Baron de Beurnonville, Paris; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, February 16-19, 1885, lot 291. Sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 1970, no cat.. Henri Baderou (1990-1991), Paris [Paris 1989]. Sold by Herman Shickman Gallery, New York, to the Art Institute, 1976.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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The Departure of Marcus Attilius Regulus for Carthage

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.