Death of Socrates

1789

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Jean François Pierre Peyron

Death of Socrates

Jean François Pierre Peyron

Death of Socrates

1789

Physical Qualities Etching with roulette and stipple, Sheet (cut within platemark): 460 x 547 mm. (18 1/8 x 21 9/16 in.)

Credit Line Garrett Collection

Object Number 1984.81.66

Peyron was Jacques-Louis David's major artistic rival, and both artists produced paintings in 1787 on the theme of the Greek philosopher's death. Both were Prix de Rome students at the French Academy in Rome, and were greatly indebted to the great 17th-century progenitor of history painting, Poussin. Instead of using a reproductive engraver to make a copy of the painting, Peyron took on this ambitious challenge himself, creating a striking print, one of the few true examples of French neoclassicism in printmaking. (Jay Fisher, label copy from the BMA exhibition, The Antique as Inspiration, 1993.)

Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Artists and Amateurs: Etching in the Eighteenth Century France," October 1, 2013- January 5, 2014.

"The Early Modern Painter-Etcher," Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, April 15 - June 11, 2006 (traveled to Ringling Museum, Sarasota, FL, July 1 - August 19, 2006; and Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, September 2- October 29, 2006.

Jay Fisher, BMA, "The Antique as Inspiration: Eighteenth-Century European Drawings and Prints," 27 June - 26 September 1993.

Signed: One

Inscribed: RECTO: in plate, at lower left: "P. Peyron inv. pinx. et Sculp. 1790."; in plate, under image, across bottom: "Socrate, prêt à boire la cigüë, exhorte ses disciples et ses amis a modérer leur douleur; / temoin de leur extrême foiblesse, il s'ecrie = Où est donc la vertu si elle n'existe/ pas dans des hommes qui se sont voués à l'etude et à la pratique de la sagesse?"; in late, at lower center: "LAMI DES ARTS" [in six-pointed star made of drafting tools]; in plate, across bottom: "A Monsieur le Comte de la Billardrie d'Angiviller Directeur et Ordonnateur Génl. des Bâtiments du Roi &c."; in plate, at bottom right: Par son très humble et très / Obéissant Serviteur Peyron"; VERSO: none.

Markings: None