The Oath of the Horatii

Artist Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748-1825)

Place of OriginFrance

Date1786

Dimensions51 1/4 × 65 5/8 in. (130.2 × 166.7 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1950.308

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 31

Label TextIn 1784 Louis XVI commissioned from Jacques-Louis David a life-size depiction of the ancient Roman story of the Horatii family pledging to fight the Curiatii. That famous painting is now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Toledo’s canvas is a reduced replica ordered from David by the high-ranking courtier Comte de Vaudreuil. It is close to the original, except that it includes a distaff with spun thread near the women’s feet. David’s pupil Anne-Louis Girodet (1767–1824) reportedly assisted in making this version. In a rhythmic composition inspired by classical relief sculpture, the Horatii brothers of Rome swear an oath before their father. They vow to fight to the death against their three cousins, the Curiatii of Alba Longa, in order to settle a dispute between their two cities. Their tense stances contrast with the fluid contours of the women, slumped in grief and resignation. Complicating the situation, the young men were married or betrothed to each other’s sisters. In the unrest leading up to the French Revolution of 1789, David’s powerful image exhorted restrained emotion, order, and the sacrifice of the individual for the good of the state.Published ReferencesThiéry, L., Guide des amateurs et des étrangers voyageurs à Paris, 1787, II, p. 548 (as a reduction by David of the Louvre painting).

Landon, C., "Exposition publique des tableaux du cabinet de M. Didot," Journal de Paris, Mar. 26, 1814, p. 4 (as "excellent copy by Girodet").

Chaussard, P., Notice sur la vie les ouvrages de M. Jacques-Louis David, Paris, 1824, p. 43 (as by David).

Thomé de Gamond, A., Vie de David, premier peinture de Napoléon, Brussels, 1826, p. 162 (as by David).

Péron, A., "Examen du tableau du serment des Horaces peint par David, suivi d'une notice historique du tableau," Annales de la société libre des beaux-arts, IX, 1839-1840, fig. 1 (engraving).

du Seigneur, J., "Appendice à la notice de P. Chaussard sur L. David," Revue universelle des arts, XVIII, 1863, p. 364 (listed as by David).

Jules David, J. L., Notice sur le Marat de Louis David, Suivie de la liste de ses tableaux dressée par lui-meme, Paris, 1867, p. 34, no. 24, p. 41 (as by David in list also transcribed by Wildenstein, 1973, p. 266).

Bellier de la Chavignerie, Dictionnaire général des artistes de l'école francais, Paris, 1868, p. 354 (as nearly wholly by Girodet).

Jules David, J. L., Le peintre Louis David, 1748-1825, souvenirs et documents inédits, Paris, 1880, I, pp. 59, 636 (as by Girodet, retouched by David).

Dumoulin, M., "Les salons d'autrefois," L'art, LXVIII, 1907, repr. p. 91 (engraving).

Cantinelli, R., Jacques-Louis David, Brussels, 1930, no. 48 (as by Girodet).

Holma, K., David, son evolution et son style, Paris, 1940, pp. 48, 126, no. 54 (as by David).

Florisoone, M., Exposition en l'honneur du deuxième centenaire de sa naissance, (exh. cat.) Orangerie, Paris, 1948, p. 48.

Hautecoeur, L., Louis David, Paris, 1954, p. 60, n.zz (as by Girodet).

Canaday, J., Mainstreams of Modern Art, New York, 1959, pp. 11-12, repr.

Dowd, D. L., "Art and the Theater During the French Revolution: The Role of Louis David," Art Quarterly, XXIII, Spring 1960, fig. 3.

Rosenblum, R., "Neoclassicism Surveyed," Burlington Magazine, CVII, Jan. 1965, pp. 30-33, n. 1.

Wittmann, O., "Letters: Jacques-Louis David at Toledo," Burlington Magazine, CVII, June 1965, pp. 323-324, fig. 1 (detail).

Rosenblum, R., "Letters: 'Jacques-Louis David at Toledo,'" Burlington Magazine, CVII, Sep. 1965, pp. 473-475.

Rosenblum, R., "Letters: The Toledo Horatii," Burlington Magazine, CVII, Dec. 1965, p. 633.

Wittmann, O., "Letters: The Toledo Horatii," Burlington Magazine, CVIII, Feb. 1966, pp. 90, 93.

(Nicolson, B.), "Editorial: Frivolity and Reason at Burlington House," Burlington Magazine, CX, Feb. 1968, p. 62, no. 179 (as by Girodet).

Rosenblum, R., "Girodet," Revue de l'art, no. 3, 1969, p. 101, n. 1.

Rosenberg, P., "Le XVIIIe siècle francais à la Royal Academy," Revue de l'art, no. 3, 1969, p. 99, no. 179 (as by Girodet).

Sérullaz, A., in The Age of Neo-Classicism, (exh. cat.), Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1972, p. 41.

Verbraeken, R., Jacques-Louis David jugé par ses contemporains et par la posterité, Paris, 1973, p. 245 (in David's list of ca. 1819).

Wildenstein, D. and G., Documents complémentaires au catalogue de l'oeuvre de Louis David, Paris, 1973, pp. 23 (no. 176), 209 (in no. 1810), 226, 227 (23, in no. 1938).

Cummings, F., in French Painting 1774-1830: The Age of Revolution, (exh. cat.), Detroit Institute of Arts, 1975, p. 41 (as by Girodet).

The Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 51-52, pl. 211.

Ocvirk, Otto G., et al, Art Fundamentals: Theory and Practice, 3rd ed., Dubuque, 1975, p. 137, repr. fig. 181.

Schulze, Franz, "'A Consistantly Descriminating Connoisseurship,'" Art News, vol. 76, no. 4, Apr. 1977, p. 64.

Knight, Christopher, "History/Art," Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art Journal, no. 20, Oct. - Nov. 1978, p. 28, repr.

Morse, John D., Old Master Paintings in North America, New York, 1979, p. 96, repr.

Stackelberg, Jurgen V., "Frankreich und Europa im 18. Jahrhundert," in Neues Handbuch der Literaturwissenschaft, bd. 13: Europaische Aufklarung III, Wiesbaden, 1980, p. 11, repr.

Canaday, John, Mainstreams of Modern Art, 2nd ed., New York, 1981, pp. 10-18, 21, 24, 25, 29, 31, 47, 55, 61, 63, 64, 72, 134, 149, 152, 173, 195, 247n., 252, 260n., repr. (col.) p. 53.

Ottani Cavina, Anna, "Stockholm on Classic Ground: Painters in Rome in the 1780s," Burlington, vol. 125, no. 958, Jan. 1983, p. 54.

Wills, Garry, Cincinnatus: George Washington and the Enlightenment, Garden City, 1984, pp. 60, 125, 184, 215, 217, 226, repr. fig. 12, p. 58.

Bailey, Colon B., "The Comte de Vaudreuil," Apollo, vol. 130, no. 329, July 1989, pp. 25, 26, p. II (col.).

Crow, Thomas, "Une manière de travailler, in the studio of David," Parachute, Oct/Nov/Dec. 1989, pp. 47, 49, repr.

Jacques-Louis David, 1748-1825, Paris, 1989, fig. 51, p. 169 [not in exhibition].

Wintermute, Alan P., 1789: French Art During the Revolution, New York, Colnaghi, 1989, [not in exhib.].

Fiero, Gloria K., The Age of the Baroque and the European Enlightenment: The Humanistic Tradition, Book 4, Dubuque, 1992, pp. 153, 154, figs. 26, 27.

Carr, Gerald L. "David, Boydell and 'Socrates,'" Apollo, vol. 137, no. 375, May 1993, pp. 307, 308, 315, fig. 3.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 113, repr. (col.).

Crow, Thomas E., Emulation: Making Artists for Revolutionary France, New Haven, 1995, pp. 90, 92, 102, 315, n. 23, 24, pl. 69, p. 91 (as Girodet).

Pelfrey, Robert, Art and Mass Media, Dubuque, 1996, p. 25, fig. 1.17, p. 26.

Pace, Brian P., "The cover," Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 277, no. 19, May 21, 1997, p. 1500, repr. on cover (col.).

Mittler, Gene, Understanding Art, New York, 1999, p. 221, fig. 14-1, p. 210 (col.).

Cooper, James F., Knights of the Brush: The Hudson River School and the Moral Landscape, New York, 1999, p. 27, repr. (col.).

Bailey, Colin B., Patriotic Taste: Collecting Modern Art in Pre-Revolutionary Paris, New Haven, Yale, 2002, pp. 180, 190, 193, 297, n. 143, 149, pl. 176, p. 192.

Brommer, Gerald F. and Nancy K. Kinne, Exploring Painting, 2nd ed., Worcester, Davis, 2003, p. 190, fig. 16 (col.).

[Bellenger, Sylvain], "Girodet: Romantique et Rebelle," Dossier de l'Art, no. 122, Sept. 2005, p. 10, repr. (col.).

Lynn, Martha Drexler, Sculpture, Glass, and American Museums, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005, p. 202.

Hayes, Kevin J., The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 331, repr. p. 332.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 218-19, repr. (col.) and (det.).

Cogeval, Guy, De la Scene au Tableau, Paris, Skira Flammarion, 2009, repr. (col.) p. 47.

Steenhuis, Marinke, Bureau B+B: Stedebouw en landschapsarchitectuur = Urbanism and Landscape Architecture, Rotterdam, NAI Publishers, 2010, p. 483, repr. (col.) p. 482.

Fletcher, Judith, Performing Oaths in Classical Greek Drama, Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 2012, repr. (col.) front cover.

Alcauskas, Katherine D., Theaters of Fiction, Clinton, New York, the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College, 2019, repr. (col.) p. 6 [detail], p. 19 [detail], [exhibition catalogue; not in exhibition].

Exhibition HistoryParis, Galerie Lebrun, Explication des ouvrages de peinture exposées au profit des Grecs, 1826, no. 40 (as by David, entirely retouched by him five years after 1786).

Paris, Petit Palais, David et ses élèves, 1913, no. 25 (as by Girodet, retouched by David).

Paris, Palais National Des Arts, Chefs d'Oeuvres de l'Art Francais, 1937, no. 293, (cat. of paintings edited by Charles Sterling).

Rome and Milan, Mostra di capolavori della pittura francese dell'ottocento, 1955, no. 27 (cat. by G. Bazin; as by David).

Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, Neo-classicism, Style and Motif, 1964, no. 114, repr. (as by David).

London, Royal Academy, France in the Eighteenth Century, 1968, no. 179, fig. 338 (as by David).

Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Bilder vom Menschen, 1980, no. 29, pp. 319-321, repr.

Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Pä klassisk mark, 1982, no. 10, pp. 32-34, repr. (col.) p. 33 and on cover.

Philadelphia, Phildelphia Museum of Art; Houston, Museum of Fine Art, Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, 2000, no. 213, pp. 361-362, (repr. (col.).

Paris, Musée du Louvre; Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (1767-1824), 2005-2006, no. 3, pp. 184-187, repr. (col.) p. 184. (Note: Cleveland Museum of Art has been replaced by Art Institute of Chicago as the second venue. Also, the exhibition has added a fourth venue -- the Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, October 12, 2006 - January 21, 2007 --but TMA is lending only to the first three venues).

Marseille, Musée Cantini; Rovereto, Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto; Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, Les enfants du Paradis. Painting and Theatre / Theatre and Painting from Neoclassicism to Modernity, October 1, 2009 – September 26, 2010.

Houston, Museum of Fine Arts Houston; Paris, Musee du Louvre, Antiquity Revived: Neoclassical Art in the Eighteenth Century,, Dec 2010- May 2011, cat. 89, repr. (col.) p. 167 (only in Houston).

Comparative ReferencesSee also Johnson, Dorothy, "Corporality and communication: the gestural revolution of Diderot, David, and The Oath of the Horatii,' Art Bulletin, vol. 71, no. 1, March 1989, pp. 92-113.

See also Crow, THomas E., Painters and public life in eighteenth-century Paris, New Haven, 1985, pp. 7, 163, 209, 212-217, 219-220, 223, 226-229, 230, 232, 233, 235-241, 242, 244, 249, 250, 251-255.

See also Stuckey, Charles F., French painting, New York, 1991, p. 75, repr. (col.) p. 83.

See also Johnson, Dorothy, Jacques-Louis David: art in metamorphosis, Princeton, 1995, pp. 4, 11, 14, 38-39, 58-66, 69, 80, 82, 162, fig. 2, pl I (col.).

See also Michel, Régis and Marie-Catherine Sahut, David l'art et le politique, [Paris], 1988, pp. 34-42, repr. p. 40-41 (col.).

See also Sayre, Henry M., A world of art, 4th ed., Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall, 2003, p. 170-171, fig. 239.

See also Bordes, Philippe, Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile, New Haven, Yale, 2005, p. 34, 186.

On the larger version of The Oath of the Horatii, 1784: Wind, Edgar, "Source of David's Horaces," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 4, nos. 3 and 4, 1940-1941, pp. 124-138.

Dowd, David, Pageant-Master of the Republic, Jacques-Louis David and the French Revolution, Lincoln (NE), 1948, esp. pp. 16-18.

Hautecoeur, Louis, Louis David, Paris, 1954, pp. 70-88.

Holma, pp. 45-48.

Florisoone, M., David, David (exhibition catalogue), Paris, 1948, no. M. O. 18.

The following use the same quotation reffering to "une réduction du' 'Serment des Horaces' peinte par Girdoet,": Anonymous, Dialogues sur le Salon, Paris, 1785, Collection Deloynes, Cabinet des 'Estampes,' vol. 14.

Beaucamp, F., Wicart, Lille, 1939, vol. I, p. 74.

Hautecoeur, Louis, Louis David, Paris, 1954, p. 60, n. 22.

Rosenblum, Robert, in the September Burlington article, also quotes this, p. 475.