Where can I see this portrait?

It hangs at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier, France. The museum purchased it in 1829.

Who was Alphonse Leroy?

Alphonse Leroy was a French physician and man-midwife who invented the lampe à quinquet (oil lamp). He attended David's wife during childbirth.

What objects appear in the painting?

Leroy holds a copy of Hippocrates' medical text on women's illnesses. An oil lamp he invented sits on the desk, symbolizing scholarly study.

When was this portrait exhibited?

David first showed the painting at the Paris Salon of 1783. It demonstrates his skill in portraiture before he became famous for Neoclassical history paintings.

Where Is Portrait of Alphonse Leroy? Museum Location

French artist Jacques-Louis David painted this portrait of Doctor Alphonse Leroy in 1783, the same year it was exhibited at the Paris Salon. Leroy was a physician and man-midwife who had attended Madame David during the birth of her first child, giving the artist ample opportunity to study his subject. The painting shows Leroy leaning on a closed copy of Hippocrates' Morbi mulierum, a work on women's illnesses.

On the desk sits a "lampe à quinquet," an oil lamp that Leroy himself invented. Together with the medical text, this lamp references Cesare Ripa's Iconologia, which identifies lamps and books as attributes of scholarly study. The naturalistic attention to detail and bright tonality reveal David's debt to Flemish painters, whose work he studied during an 1781 visit to Flanders.

One of David's pupils, Jean-François Garneray, assisted with painting the hands and fabrics. The portrait measures 91 by 72 centimeters and hangs at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier, which purchased it in 1829. It remains one of David's finest portrait works from before the French Revolution.