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Lot Essay
Born in Rouen on 29 November 1738, Le Barbier studied painting in and around the city in his youth. Arriving in Paris, he trained with Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre at the École de l’Académie Royale. In 1780, he was made an associate member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture, becoming a full member in 1785. Le Barbier first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1789 and, with the exception of one year, continued to do so until 1799. His earliest canvases are rococo-inflected history paintings in the fashionable neo-grec style of Joseph Marie Vien, but soon thereafter he embraced the more rigorous Neoclassical manner of Jacques-Louis David, as Le Barbier — by then in his 40s — took up subjects from ancient history and patriotic themes related to the French Revolution. He was a partisan of the Revolution and an active participant, serving as a member of the Paris Commune (1789-1795) and chosen, along with David, to assist in the ‘regeneration’ of the Academie Royale. Roughly 90 paintings by the artist survive or are recorded, and he was a prolific draftsman, illustrator and writer. He died in Paris on 7 May 1826 and is buried in Pére Lachaise Cemetery.
The Magnanimity of Lycurgus is one of Le Barbier’s most important history paintings from the early years of the French Revolution. Signed and dated ‘1791’, the artist exhibited it to acclaim in the 1791 Paris Salon, the second year he participated. The subject of the painting is elucidated in a lengthy description published in the Salon livret. Lycurgus, the Lawgiver of Sparta, was the symbolic founder of the Spartan state, responsible for instituting many of its social and political institutions. Lycurgus is said to have reformed Spartan society according to guidance from the Oracle of Delphi, promoting the three Spartan virtues: equality among citizens, military fitness, and austerity. Although he is referred to by many ancient historians and philosophers, early accounts of his life differ widely in almost every detail, and it remains unknown if he was an actual historical figure or legendary.
The source for Le Barbier’s painting comes from Plutarch’s Lives. The ancient author records that in the last quarter of the 9th century BC, Lycurgus rose to power when his elder brother, the king, died and Lycurgus assumed the throne of Sparta. However, the king died leaving a pregnant widow. Although it was assumed that Lycurgus would kill the child when it was born in order to maintain power for himself, he instead magnanimously ceded the throne to his infant nephew, intending to rule on the child’s behalf in a regency until the boy was old enough to assume the crown. The act sealed Lycurgus’s reputation as a man of honor who would relinquish authority in favor of justice. During his rule, he instituted the social system and constitution that established Sparta as a powerful but virtuous state.
Le Barbier’s painting demonstrates his mastery of the emphatic gestures, emotive expressions and lucid compositional design that define the Davidian School of narrative history painting in the 1790s. Inside a severe, windowless marble chamber decorated with Doric columns, standing, kneeling and seated figures surround a massive stone table with legs carved in the form of griffons. Lycurgus stands heroically at center right, gesturing with his left hand to the boy who will become King of Sparta, a sleeping child being gently presented by his attentive mother. With a sweeping movement of his right arm, Lycurgus announces to the assembled Council of Elders, 'Spartan Lords! Here is the King, who has just been born to us.' The Spartan magistrates receive the news of Lycurgus’s renunciation of the throne with a variety of expressions of shock, surprise and confusion, their servants standing back and pausing as they prepare to serve wine and platters of steaming food to the assembly. Le Barbier conceives the event like a scene from the classical theater and stages it with archeological exactitude: Lycurgus’s handsome profile is based on ancient medals; the frugal repast reflects historical accounts of Spartan meals; the statue in the niche above Lycurgus derives from antique prototypes and represents Heracles (Hercules to the Romans), the divinity from whom the hereditary kings of Sparta were said to descend.
In the years immediately preceding the start of the French Revolution, Lycurgus was often invoked as a model for just legislative action, and Augustin Pajou, Moreau le Jeune, Cochin, François-André Vincent and François Sablet had each previously illustrated his story. Le Barbier’s depiction of an enlightened King, leading a ‘republic of laws’ and acting with benevolence toward his successor, is the most vivid and heroic depiction of Lycurgus made in this moment of historical upheaval. It would undoubtedly have spoken powerfully to reform-minded but politically moderate contemporaries, many of whom still hoped for a peaceful transition of royal power from Louis XVI to his son, the Dauphin, despite the King’s recent arrest as he fled the capital. The royal family’s secret attempt to escape Paris for Varennes had occurred only weeks before the 1791 Salon opened to the public.
Le Barbier worked out his composition in a handsome oil sketch (37 x 45 cm.) that was purchased by the Musée de Blois in 1936 as a work by David (fig.1). The sketch, which bears a false monogram, was first identified as Le Barbier’s study for the present painting in 1990 by David A. Wisner. The finished painting differs from the sketch in mostly small but improving ways. While the principal grouping of Lycurgus, his sister-in-law and her child are carried over from the sketch without alteration, the expressions, gestures and poses of the Council of Elders and their servants are all subtly adjusted and refined to sharpen their dramatic and narrative eloquence. The architectural setting is enlarged and made grander and more imposing, with the addition of archeologically accurate Doric columns. The statue of Heracles, which is life-sized in the sketch and positioned behind the magistrates, is reduced in size and relocated to a high niche in the wall behind Lycurgus in the final version.
The present, finished painting was believed lost until its reappearance at auction in Paris in 2003; however, the composition was known through a print made after it by the engraver Jean-Jacques Avril, announced in the Journal de Paris on 19 October 1791, published in 1793 and exhibited in the Salon that year. Avril was a frequent collaborator of Le Barbier and was the painting’s first owner. He had previously engraved a suite of prints after Le Barbier’s compositions of Greek and Roman subjects, including The Battle between the Horatii and the Curatii (1786), Coriolanus (1788) and Penelope and Ulysses (1789). The series formed a sort of guide for moral education, as the subtitles to the prints indicate: ‘Love of Country’, ‘Filial Respect’ and ‘Modesty’, respectively. The subtitle for the Lycurgus was ‘Magnanimity’.
The Magnanimity of Lycurgus is one of Le Barbier’s most important history paintings from the early years of the French Revolution. Signed and dated ‘1791’, the artist exhibited it to acclaim in the 1791 Paris Salon, the second year he participated. The subject of the painting is elucidated in a lengthy description published in the Salon livret. Lycurgus, the Lawgiver of Sparta, was the symbolic founder of the Spartan state, responsible for instituting many of its social and political institutions. Lycurgus is said to have reformed Spartan society according to guidance from the Oracle of Delphi, promoting the three Spartan virtues: equality among citizens, military fitness, and austerity. Although he is referred to by many ancient historians and philosophers, early accounts of his life differ widely in almost every detail, and it remains unknown if he was an actual historical figure or legendary.
The source for Le Barbier’s painting comes from Plutarch’s Lives. The ancient author records that in the last quarter of the 9th century BC, Lycurgus rose to power when his elder brother, the king, died and Lycurgus assumed the throne of Sparta. However, the king died leaving a pregnant widow. Although it was assumed that Lycurgus would kill the child when it was born in order to maintain power for himself, he instead magnanimously ceded the throne to his infant nephew, intending to rule on the child’s behalf in a regency until the boy was old enough to assume the crown. The act sealed Lycurgus’s reputation as a man of honor who would relinquish authority in favor of justice. During his rule, he instituted the social system and constitution that established Sparta as a powerful but virtuous state.
Le Barbier’s painting demonstrates his mastery of the emphatic gestures, emotive expressions and lucid compositional design that define the Davidian School of narrative history painting in the 1790s. Inside a severe, windowless marble chamber decorated with Doric columns, standing, kneeling and seated figures surround a massive stone table with legs carved in the form of griffons. Lycurgus stands heroically at center right, gesturing with his left hand to the boy who will become King of Sparta, a sleeping child being gently presented by his attentive mother. With a sweeping movement of his right arm, Lycurgus announces to the assembled Council of Elders, 'Spartan Lords! Here is the King, who has just been born to us.' The Spartan magistrates receive the news of Lycurgus’s renunciation of the throne with a variety of expressions of shock, surprise and confusion, their servants standing back and pausing as they prepare to serve wine and platters of steaming food to the assembly. Le Barbier conceives the event like a scene from the classical theater and stages it with archeological exactitude: Lycurgus’s handsome profile is based on ancient medals; the frugal repast reflects historical accounts of Spartan meals; the statue in the niche above Lycurgus derives from antique prototypes and represents Heracles (Hercules to the Romans), the divinity from whom the hereditary kings of Sparta were said to descend.
In the years immediately preceding the start of the French Revolution, Lycurgus was often invoked as a model for just legislative action, and Augustin Pajou, Moreau le Jeune, Cochin, François-André Vincent and François Sablet had each previously illustrated his story. Le Barbier’s depiction of an enlightened King, leading a ‘republic of laws’ and acting with benevolence toward his successor, is the most vivid and heroic depiction of Lycurgus made in this moment of historical upheaval. It would undoubtedly have spoken powerfully to reform-minded but politically moderate contemporaries, many of whom still hoped for a peaceful transition of royal power from Louis XVI to his son, the Dauphin, despite the King’s recent arrest as he fled the capital. The royal family’s secret attempt to escape Paris for Varennes had occurred only weeks before the 1791 Salon opened to the public.
Le Barbier worked out his composition in a handsome oil sketch (37 x 45 cm.) that was purchased by the Musée de Blois in 1936 as a work by David (fig.1). The sketch, which bears a false monogram, was first identified as Le Barbier’s study for the present painting in 1990 by David A. Wisner. The finished painting differs from the sketch in mostly small but improving ways. While the principal grouping of Lycurgus, his sister-in-law and her child are carried over from the sketch without alteration, the expressions, gestures and poses of the Council of Elders and their servants are all subtly adjusted and refined to sharpen their dramatic and narrative eloquence. The architectural setting is enlarged and made grander and more imposing, with the addition of archeologically accurate Doric columns. The statue of Heracles, which is life-sized in the sketch and positioned behind the magistrates, is reduced in size and relocated to a high niche in the wall behind Lycurgus in the final version.
The present, finished painting was believed lost until its reappearance at auction in Paris in 2003; however, the composition was known through a print made after it by the engraver Jean-Jacques Avril, announced in the Journal de Paris on 19 October 1791, published in 1793 and exhibited in the Salon that year. Avril was a frequent collaborator of Le Barbier and was the painting’s first owner. He had previously engraved a suite of prints after Le Barbier’s compositions of Greek and Roman subjects, including The Battle between the Horatii and the Curatii (1786), Coriolanus (1788) and Penelope and Ulysses (1789). The series formed a sort of guide for moral education, as the subtitles to the prints indicate: ‘Love of Country’, ‘Filial Respect’ and ‘Modesty’, respectively. The subtitle for the Lycurgus was ‘Magnanimity’.