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The Despair of Hecuba

ca. 1784
Not on view
Peyron prevailed over Jacques Louis David in the 1773 Prix de Rome competition and would spend seven years studying at the Académie de France. In what was framed as a rivalry, both painters sought to establish their reputations by exhibiting subjects of ancient history at the Salons of the 1780s, although public opinion, and posterity, ultimately favored the work of David.

This delicately tinted drawing shares the elegiac tone of many of Peyron’s compositions, manifest in the swooning poses of the figures and the expressively rendered drapery.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Despair of Hecuba
  • Artist: Pierre Peyron (French, Aix-en-Provence 1744–1814 Paris)
  • Date: ca. 1784
  • Medium: Pen and black ink, gray wash
  • Dimensions: 6 1/2 x 8 15/16 in. (16.5 x 22.7 cm.)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1965
  • Object Number: 65.125.2
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Les funérailles de Miltiade, Pierre Peyron French, Etching
Les funérailles de Miltiade
Pierre Peyron
n.d.
The Death of Seneca, Pierre Peyron French, Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash
The Death of Seneca
Pierre Peyron
ca. 1773
The Death of Socrates, Pierre Peyron French, Etching
The Death of Socrates
Pierre Peyron
1790
Queen Esther Approaching the Palace of Ahasuerus, Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée) French, Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, heightened with white, over black chalk
Queen Esther Approaching the Palace of Ahasuerus
Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée)
1658
The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons, Jacques Louis David French, Black chalk, pen and black and brown ink, brush and gray and brown wash, heightened with white gouache
The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons
Jacques Louis David
1787

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