Phryne before Her Judges (c. 1816–20): Art, History and Details

Phryne before Her Judges (c. 1816–20) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Known in his own time for large-scale paintings on historical subjects, Jacques-Louis David drew avidly to plan his compositions. Late in life, however, his use of drawing changed dramatically, resulting in works such as this pair. After falling out of political favor during the French Revolution (1789–99), David moved to Brussels in exile. There, he crafted small, enigmatic drawings of close-up figures. Phryne features a mythological courtesan charged with blasphemy, while The Prisoner is vaguer, with an unidentifiable man grimacing alongside a chain and oil lamp. David embraced this uncertainty, writing at the time that “I just threw down . . . the mad ideas that came into my head.”

Object facts

• Title: Phryne before Her Judges
• Date: c. 1816–20
• Creator attribution: Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: black chalk on wove paper discolored to beige
• Dimensions: Sheet: 13.3 x 19.6 cm (5 1/4 x 7 11/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2013.249

A detail from the museum

The two male figures at center may be têtes d’expression, which convey emotion through pose and expression.

Collection credit

Gift in memory of Helen Borowitz

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cantaloube, A. "Les Dessins de Louis David," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 7 (September 1860): 285-303.
• David, J. L. Jules. Le Peintre Louis David, 1748–1825: Souvenirs & documents inédits . 2 vols. Paris: Havard, 1880.
• Master Drawings. Exh. cat. London: Adolphe Stein, 1977.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.