This toile appears to be based on J L David's painting The Oath of the Horatii painted in 1784 (thanks to a helpful blog-reader for pointing this out). It is a monochrome toile printed in yellow ochre. I am not sure of its origin, it could be a toile de Jouy, or maybe Nantes or Alsace, possibly Bordeaux, I have had no luck trying to research it further. I assume it to date to somewhere around 1785-1800. Wikipedia describes the King's initial intended 'meaning' for the painting: 'The king made him work on the Oath of Horatii, with the intention that it was an allegory about loyalty to the state and therefore to the king.' But, things were not to be so clear cut: ' As he approached the French Revolution, paintings increasingly referred to the loyalty to the state rather than the family or the church. Although this picture was made nearly five years before the Revolution, The Oath of the Horatii, became one of the images representing the time.' - Wikipedia.
Beautiful! It looks very classical, with more of a Classical flair than I would have expected from a piece of memorabilia from the French Revolution! xxx
ReplyDeleteIt is a very elegant print, I would love to know more about its origins, one day i may find out more, but I have googled it until my head nearly exploded, but can't find a simlar toile...
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