Georges-Auguste Couthon at the National Convention in 1793

Baron Dominique Vivant Denon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Drawing was only one of Denon’s many pursuits; he was also a collector, a printmaker, a diplomat, and an arts administrator. Among other achievements, he accompanied and documented Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign and was the first director of the museum known today as the Louvre. Denon’s sketches reflect his sensitivity to politics as well as his urge to document. The three mounted together here (see also 62.119.8b and 62.119.8c) were apparently made during, or soon after, meetings of the National Convention, a new governing body that formally abolished the monarchy, among other acts. All of the men depicted were directly or indirectly associated with the period of violent unrest during the Revolution known as the Reign of Terror and ultimately fell victim to the guillotine themselves.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art