PEYRON, Jean-François-Pierre

Peyron’s Alceste mourante was much admired at the Salon of 1785, three years after the painter had returned from Rome. Peyron had already impressed by The Funeral of Miltiades (also in the Louvre), painted at Rome in 1782, but a subject of heroic female virtue in itself makes something of a welcome change amid much male heroics in the decade, and though echoes of Poussin are loud in the Alceste, there is also a tender, if sombre, moving quality, as well as fine painting.

The theme of Belisarius was much in vogue from the 1770s, and in addition to Jacques-Louis David, rival artists of David’s own generation, such as Pierre Peyron and Fran�ois-Andr� Vincent, had painted their own versions of the subject. In Peyron’s work, Belisarius is recognized by a peasant who had served under him, and praised as their protector and saviour by the rural family that now give him hospitality.

Peyron won the Grand Prix in 1773, and his seven years in Rome absorbing the lessons of Italian and ancient examples were particularly useful in his development of the Neoclassical style. Upon his return to Paris, Peyron enjoyed patronage that included a commission from King Louis XVI for a painting of the death of Alcestis. The large original version was exhibited in 1785 and is now in the Louvre. The present, later and smaller version of the subject differs in some compositional details

The subject is the conjugal virtue of the heroine of the tragic drama Alcestis by the fifth-century B.C. Greek poet Euripides. When her husband angered the gods, Alcestis volunteered to give her life so that his might be spared. The grieving husband and especially the child heighten the sadness of the death scene.

Peyron’s The Death of Socrates, commissioned by d’Angiviller for the Crown, was in competition with Jacques-Louis David’s work of the same subject. David’s confidence in surpassing his rival, coupled with his aggressive and ambitious nature, make it very possible that he chose to paint his own Socrates when he learned of Peyron’s plans. The force and clarity of David’s version was thrown into even sharper relief by the lack of drama and focus in Peyron’s work, and both the public and critics declared David’s work to be far superior. David eclipsed his long-time rival once and for all, and from then on Peyron had to be content with a subordinate role in the art world.

Socrates was accused by the Athenian government of impiety and corrupting the young through his teachings; he was offered the choice of renouncing his beliefs or being sentenced to death for treason. Faithful to his convictions and obedient to the law, Socrates chose to accept his sentence.

The death of Socrates, the fifth-century B.C. philosopher who devoted his life to the investigation of proper conduct, is one of the important themes in the history of art. In treating this scene, Peyron created an outstanding example of Neo-classicism. A first version of his picture, a royal commission exhibited at the Salon of 1787, was eclipsed by the critical success of a Death of Socrates by Peyron’s contemporary and long-standing rival, Jacques-Louis David. Responding to David’s work, Peyron subsequently painted the present canvas, introducing a number of telling compositional changes.

This painting was seized during the French Revolution from the collection of the Comte d’Angiviller.