The Death of Camilla

Born in Rouen on 29 November 1738, Jean-Jacques François Le Barbier studied painting in and around his home city in his youth. Arriving in Paris, he trained with Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre at the École de l’Académie Royale. In 1780, he was made an associate member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture, becoming a full member in 1785. Le Barbier first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1789 and, with the exception of one year, continued to do so until 1799. His earliest canvases are rococo-inspired history paintings in the fashionable style of Joseph Marie Vien, but soon thereafter he embraced the more rigorous Neoclassical manner of Jacques-Louis David, taking up subjects from ancient history and patriotic themes related to the French Revolution. He was a partisan of the Revolution and an active participant, serving as a member of the Paris Commune (1789-1795) and chosen, along with David, to assist in the ‘regeneration’ of the Académie Royale. Roughly ninety paintings by the artist survive or are recorded and he was a prolific draftsman, illustrator and writer. He died in Paris on 7 May 1826 and is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.

The Death of Camilla recounts the story from Livy of two warring families in ancient Rome. Most famously depicted in Jacques-Louis David’s The Oath of the Horatii (Musée du Louvre, Paris), three Horatii brothers were sent to fight three opposing warriors in a contest to the death to decide the victor of the war. Camilla, one of the sisters of the Horatii triplets, had been engaged to one of their enemies. When Horatius returned home, victorious over the three warriors, Camilla collapsed upon the realization that her betrothed had been slain by her brother. Horatius, incensed at his sister’s grief for an enemy of Rome, killed her. Prior to painting The Oath of the Horatii, David experimented with the depiction of different moments of Livy’s tale, including the death of Camilla (fig. 1). In David’s version, Camilla is prostrate on the ground, clutching her cloak and reaching up at her brother who condemns her with a pointed finger and sword raised high. After various sketches and iterations, David chose the earlier moment of the brothers’ pledge of allegiance to represent the story with an emphasis on honor and gravitas, rather than the heightened emotional intensity of Horatius’ sororicide.

Le Barbier, however, did not shy away from the more difficult subject. The artist depicts Horatius and Camilla in the moment after he has stabbed her, her hand is still raised in defense and her head thrown back, gasping her last breath. Standing over her crumpled body, and turning back to the approaching army at processing through the city gates, Horatius is wild eyed with anger and horror, both at his sister’s betrayal and his own wanton act of cruelty.