Loveless Disarming Himself
Jacques Louis David (after Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748-1825))
after 1824
- Medium
- Lithograph in black on white wove paper
- Classification
- Dimensions
- 25.7 × 39.4 cm (10 1/8 × 15 9/16 in.)
- Culture
- France
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- John H. Wrenn Memorial Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The satirical target of this unruly lithograph is Jacques-Louis David’s final history painting, Mars Disarmed by Venus and the Three Graces (1824; Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels). The god of war in David’s composition has been transformed into a weary French officer, the nubile goddesses into prostitutes pilfering his battle gear, and the classical, cloud-borne couch into a cheap brothel. As an additional insult, the sign at right offers “Bierre de Mars,” a spring brew rumored to inspire military volunteers.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
