The Despair of Hecuba

Pierre Peyron

ca. 1784 · Pen and black ink, gray wash · Drawings and Prints

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.

Artist

Pierre Peyron

Date

ca. 1784

Medium

Pen and black ink, gray wash

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1965