Profile Sketch of Maréchal Berthier 1805 - 1824

Curator: Today we are looking at Jacques-Louis David's "Profile Sketch of Maréchal Berthier," held at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: The starkness of the page makes the sketch feel quite vulnerable, almost like a fleeting thought captured on paper. Curator: David's use of line is economical yet precise. Note how he captures the Maréchal’s features with minimal strokes, achieving a remarkable likeness. Editor: It’s hard not to consider Berthier’s role in the Napoleonic Wars, and how David’s art served the state and sometimes glorified figures complicit in violent political projects. Curator: But David’s skill lies in abstracting Berthier. The sketch itself becomes a study in form, in the interplay of positive and negative space. Editor: True, yet the context shadows every line, reminding us of the political forces at play during its creation. Curator: It's an important tension that reveals how artistic skill can exist separately from the political ideologies of its era. Editor: Indeed, and how our view of art transforms over time.