The Prisoner (c. 1816–22): Art, History and Details

The Prisoner (c. 1816–22) 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:

This drawing belongs to a series of enigmatic sheets that the French artist Jacques-Louis David created while living as an exile in Brussels from 1816 until his death in 1825. Many of these untitled works present close-up views of expressive heads and were given by the artist to his friends. This image of a turbaned man next to a hanging chain and oil lamp loosely references David's painting The Intercession of Saint Roch (1780) from much earlier in his career.

Object facts

• Title: The Prisoner
• Date: c. 1816–22
• Creator attribution: Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: black chalk on cream laid paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 13.1 x 19.6 cm (5 3/16 x 7 11/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1973.36

A detail from the museum

Scholars have suggested that Jacques-Louis David might have intended this drawing as a portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, who the artist supported. The former leader died a prisoner on the island of Saint Helena in 1821.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sérullaz, Arlette. “A propos de quelques dessins de Jacques-Louis David pour ‘Mars désarmé́ par Vénus et les Grâces.’” Bulletin des musées royaux des beaux-arts de Belgique 21, nos. 1–4 (1972): 107-116.
• Dessins, aquarelles, pastels, gouaches [. . .] tableaux anciens et du XIXe siècle. Paris: Hôtel Drouot, 1972.
• Old Master Drawings Presented by Adolphe Stein and Lorna Lowe. Exh. Cat. London: H. Terry-Engell Gallery, 1972.

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.