Cleveland Museum of Art

The Prisoner

Jacques-Louis David

Date

c. 1816–22

Medium

black chalk on cream laid paper

Culture

France, 19th century

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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. 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.

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