The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Horizontally oriented oil painting depicting women with light skin tones gathering at the base of a dark-brown statue of a seated woman holding out a circular band. One woman kneels with her back to us, looking up at the statue and holding her nude baby against a pedestal in front of the statue. Other women stand, removing jewelry and placing it on the pedestal. Left, a woman holds an object away from a reaching man. They all wear white tunics overlaid with red, yellow-green, or blue.

Le Dévouement des Citoyennes de Paris (The Dedication of the Citizens of Paris)

1794

Joseph-Benoît Suvée

(French, 1743–1807)
Oil on canvas
Overall: 49.9 x 61.3 cm (19 5/8 x 24 1/8 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2022.40
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Shortly after submitting this sketch, the artist was imprisoned for not being sufficiently loyal to the republic.

Description

Painted during the French Revolution’s treacherous Reign of Terror, the artist took inspiration from an actual event. In 1789, wives and daughters of several prominent artists donated their jewelry to the service of the young French republic. Joseph-Benoit Suvée recasts the event in classical Roman style, underscoring the connection between the ancient republic and France’s revolutionary ambitions.
  • The painting has been glue lined and the composition slightly expanded along the left and right edges. Infrared reflectography (IRR) revealed initial perspective lines laid in as well as a significant change in the composition of the large pedestal where an angel was initially imagined. Microscopic examination provided more insight into the artist’s working methods, revealing the use of a tool to carve in the initial placement and spacing of the letters on the large pedestal, as well as the use of a three-tiered system of preparatory layers beginning first with a dark red ground, followed by a light gray ground, and ending with a carbon-based underdrawing visible in IRR. The ground layer system used can be observed with high magnification along most edges of the painting.
  • -2004
    Private Collection, Paris, France
    December 3, 2004
    (Sale: Paris, France, Hôtel Drouot, Beaussant Lefèvre, 3 December 2004, lot 59, as Joseph-Marie Vien)
    2004-2005
    W. M. Brady & Co., New York, NY, sold private collectors, New York, NY
    2021-2022
    Mark Brady, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2022-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Olander, William. Pour Transmettre À La Postérité: French Painting and Revolution, 1774-1795. 1983. p. 469
    Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (France), and Council of Europe. La Révolution française et l'Europe 1789-1799: XXe exposition du conseil de l'Europe : Galeries nationales du grand Palais, Paris, 16 mars-26 juin 1989. Paris: Ministère de la Culture de la Communication des Grands Travaux et du Bicentenaire, Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1989. p. 838, Vol. III, Chapter XXX
    Tajan (Firm). Félix Tournachon dit Nadar (1820-1910) et son panthéon, importante collection de 273 dessins: portraits et portraits-charge. Paris: Tajan, 2004. lot 59
    W.M. Brady & Co. Pictures & Oil Sketches, 1775-1920. New York, NY: W.M. Brady & Co, 2005. cat. no. 3
    Join-Lambert, Sophie, Anne Leclair, Denis Coekelberghs, Dominique Marechal, and Joseph Benoît Suvée. Joseph-Benoît Suvée, 1743-1807: un artiste entre Bruges, Rome et Paris. 2017. pp. 151, 177
  • Pictures and Oil Sketches, 1775-1920, W.M. Brady & Co., New York, NY (30 November - 20 December 2005).
    Le Jury des Arts au Concours de l’an II pour les Travaux d’encouragement, Paris, France (April-May, 1794).
  • {{cite web|title=Le Dévouement des Citoyennes de Paris (The Dedication of the Citizens of Paris)|url=false|author=Joseph-Benoît Suvée|year=1794|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.40