Red chalk

The Ultimes are prints made from the original etching plates in the Chalcographie collection at the Musée du Louvre before they were put into storage for preservation reasons.

For reasons of preservation, it was decided to stop printing plates engraved before 1848. Before they left the Ateliers to go into the Louvre's reserves, some were printed one last time. These are the last ones. Each print is dated, numbered and stamped, and is sold with a certificate of authenticity, in a limited edition of 10.

This print was engraved by Jean-Baptiste-Raphaël Massard (1775-1843) in 1799 after a painting by French painter Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825). It depicts a legendary episode in the founding of Rome. The Sabines were trying to take back their daughters who had been kidnapped by the Romans led by Romulus, who was trying to populate the city he had just founded. A long war ensued, which ended when the Sabines intervened to reconcile the two parties.

It is this episode, a call for peace, that the painter illustrates. This choice was far from insignificant in the political context of the revolution, where his stance in favour of Robespierre landed him in prison. This is an allegory in which David advocates reconciliation between the French after the Revolution.