Cornelia, mother of the Gracques brothers, 1795

This study is a rare example of a drawing created by a sculptor, in this case the 18^th century French artist Jean-Guillaume Moitte. Moitte was trained by sculptors Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714-1785) and Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne (1705-1762) and in 1768 won the Prix de Rome. This drawing of a frieze resembles Moitte’s numerous carvings which were inspired by compositions from classical antiquity in which the characters emerge from a shadowy background in imitation of glyptic reliefs. Two drawings by Moitte from the same series and of the same dimensions are known; Orpheus in the underworld, from 1790, is at the Louvre (inv. RF 41646 ; L.-A. Prat, Le Dessin français au XVIII^e siècle, Paris, 2017, p. 293, no. 518) and The departure of Coriolanus at the Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University (inv. 1983-314 ; Prat, op. cit., p. 293, no. 522). Another slightly smaller drawing representing A scene of sacrifice is in the Magnin Museum in Dijon, France (inv. 1938 DF 711 ; Dessins français du XVII^e au XIX^e siècle de la collection du musée Magnin à Dijon, exhib. cat, Dijon, musée Magnin, 2008, pp. 23-24, ill).

Some of these historic scenes, sometimes inscribed within a frame decorated with foliage or geometric motifs, were propagated by etchings and aquatints produced by Louise Pithoud and Pierre-Michel Alix (1762-1817) as well as by François Janinet (1752-1814), the latter engraved the 1789 aquatint The virtue of Lucretia (British Museum, inv. 1890,0415.211).

In the present drawing the Roman matron Cornelia (1^st century BC), daughter of Scipio Africanus and mother to Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, demonstrates how dearly she holds her sons, in contrast to the woman seated in front of her who cherishes the jewelry laid out on the table. Also known as the mother of the Gracchi brothers, Cornelia was an exceptional mother who played a critical role in the education of her sons, both of whom would go on to become savvy politicians. Cornelia’s story was well known to artists of the 18^th century; the French painter Jean-Benoît Suvée (1743-1807) also depicted this subject (Musée du Louvre, inv. 8075; S. Join-Lambert, A. Leclair, Joseph-Benoît Suvée, Paris, 2017, P.161, ill).