1818
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Phryne before Her Judges is a 1818 by Jacques-Louis David, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A woman stands naked in front of a row of men in robes. They look angry; she looks calm. The scene is tight, like a close-up in a movie. This is Phryne, a real courtesan from ancient Greece. She was put on trial for impiety, but when her lawyer pulled off her robe, the judges let her go—her beauty supposedly proved her innocence. David drew this late in life, after he’d been exiled from France. The small, rough lines feel personal, like a sketch from his notebook. Look up *chiaroscuro* to see how other artists used light and shadow like this.
Known in his own time for large-scale paintings on historical subjects, Jacques-Louis David drew avidly to plan his compositions. Late in life, however, his use of drawing changed dramatically, resulting in works such as this pair. After falling out of political favor during the French Revolution (1789–99), David moved to Brussels in exile. There, he crafted small, enigmatic drawings of close-up figures. Phryne features a mythological courtesan charged with blasphemy, while The Prisoner is vaguer, with an unidentifiable man grimacing alongside a chain and oil lamp. David embraced this…
The two male figures at center may be têtes d’expression , which convey emotion through pose and expression.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Jacques-Louis David was born in Paris on 30 August 1748 into a bourgeois family; his father died in a duel when the boy was nine, and a maternal uncle guided his education.
See the richer artist pageYour cart is empty
Explore artworks →
![Studies of Men in Togas [recto]](https://pub-3a17a9933ad74fb28aa30fa758592f23.r2.dev/artworks/3d22c2162285bf09/thumb.webp)
