La Victoire 1810

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon made this drawing, La Victoire, with black and white chalk on blue paper. It presents a classical figure, likely inspired by antique statues, who embodies victory with her laurel wreath and palm frond. This image can tell us something about the cultural and political climate of France in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a time marked by revolution, empire, and the rise of Neoclassicism. Artists looked to ancient Greece and Rome for models of civic virtue and heroism, but these images could also be deployed in service of contemporary political regimes. Consider the ways that Napoleon used classical imagery to legitimize his rule. Was Prud'hon simply interested in reviving classical forms, or was he also making a statement about power and authority in post-revolutionary France? As historians, we can research the classical sources that inspired Prud'hon, and we can examine the political context in which he was working to better understand the meaning of this image of victory.