Sunday 31 July 2022

The house where David died

The Brussels Times has a short article about the house in Brussels, 7 rue Léopold, where Jacques-Louis David died in exile

The article is one of a series by Derek Blyth, author of the book The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium

For more details:   Wikipedia: The House of Jacques Louis David









Here is Anita Brookner's account of David's death and funeral: 

In February 1824 David was knocked over by a cab while returning from the theatre.  He was able to get up and make his way home but his physical decline dates from this incident.  In July 1825 both David and his wife were suffering from strokes.  Mme. David  was taken to Paris to see her doctor;  David stayed in Brussels, where he was visited by his pupil and had his portrait painted (Paris; Musée du Louvre).  He recovered sufficiently to go to the theatre, to make a drawing of The Rape of Lucretia, and to correct a proof of the engraving of Leonidas at Thermopylae.  His last words are reported to have been "C'st bien là une tête de Léonidas".  He died on 29 December 1825.....The Belgian government organized an impressive funeral cortege, more than a little reminiscent of the great public funerals of the Revolution.  After the lying-in-state, ten detachments moved off from David's home to Ste.Gudule.  Art students carried banners inscribed with the names of his works;  there were palm branches and crowns of laurels and immortelles;  there were "mélodies funèbres";  there was the hearse drawn by six black horses; there was the shroud carried by his pupils Navaz, Paelinck, Stapleaux, Rude, van Gheel, and Bidimont; and, most touching of all,, there was David's valet, dressed in deepest black, and carrying his master's uniform of a member of the Institut de France.  Bringing up the rear, an echo of David's republican days, was "la foule"  
[Anita Brookner, Jacques-Louis David (1980)  p.187]

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