Claude-Antoine-Gabriel, duc de Choiseul-Stainville (1762–1838)

Claude-Antoine-Gabriel, duc de Choiseul-Stainville was a colonel and a Peer of France. Choiseul was loyal to the Bourbon monarchy and was arrested three times while fighting for their reinstatement. In 1799 he was shipwrecked off of Calais and sentenced to death, only narrowly escaping due to a change in regime. During both the 1814-1830 Bourbon Restoration and the subsequent July Monarchy, Choiseul was a prominent member of government. He championed the new liberalism of 1827-30, and his espousal of political change attracted the Republican David d’Angers. The artist endorsed this political shift in 1828 by immortalizing Choiseul in this bronze medallion. The medallion is a transitional piece that suggests David’s mature Romantic style in the large-scale medallion format in which the bust extends to the medal’s upper and lower edges in high relief that would become identified with the sculptor. David contrasts the unruly energy of Choiseul’s thick locks of hair with the focused poise of his expression, which is consistent with other images of the duke that exist in painting and in caricature.