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Primary sourcePainting1817

Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (1748-1836)

Jacques-Louis David · 1817

An 1817 portrait of Sieyès painted from life by Jacques-Louis David during their shared exile in Brussels.

A portrait of Sieyès himself, painted from life in exile, giving the most reliable image of his appearance.

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Oil portrait of a seated man with curly red-brown hair wearing a dark double-breasted overcoat and white cravat, holding a round dark hat in his lap, against a plain olive-brown background. Latin inscriptions read EMM. JOS. SIEYES and ÆTATIS SUÆ. 69, with signature L. David Bruxelles 1817.
Jacques-Louis David, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, 1817. Harvard Art Museums.

About this source

What it is

An oil portrait by Jacques-Louis David, painted in Brussels in 1817 and now held by the Harvard Art Museums. It shows a seated man in a dark overcoat holding a hat, with Latin inscriptions giving his name and age.

Why it matters

By 1817 Sieyès was living in exile, having been branded a regicide and stripped of position after the fall of Napoleon's empire, in which he had been made a count. David, also in exile for his support of Napoleon, painted this as what is considered the definitive likeness of Sieyès made from life.

Look closer

  • What does the plain background and dark clothing suggest about how Sieyès wanted to be shown in exile?
  • Why might two exiled men, artist and sitter, have sought each other out?
  • What does the portrait not tell us about Sieyès' earlier political career?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Title page of the 1789 pamphlet 'Qu'est-ce que le Tiers-Etat?' in French, with an opening paragraph outlining three questions: what the Third Estate is (everything), what it has been in the political order (nothing), and what it demands (to become something). Includes the numbered outline of the pamphlet's plan.Book

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What Is the Third Estate?

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Painted allegory of the 1789 French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. A title plaque reads 'Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen' above two tablets of text. A seated woman with chains and a standing winged figure with a wand flank the plaque, under a radiant eye in a triangle.Document

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Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

National Constituent Assembly · 1789

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Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume 1

Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne

Title page scan of 'Essai sur les privilèges' in French, with the heading 'ESSAI SUR LES PRIVILÈGES', a round library stamp at left, an opening paragraph of body text, and a page number '(1788)' near the bottom. Page is grainy and partly faded.Book

Primary source

Essai sur les privilèges

Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès · 1788

Painting of a crowded, dimly lit indoor hall with tiered galleries. Many men in 18th-century dress raise their arms, and a standing figure in black at the center raises one hand. In the foreground, two men in white and dark clothing embrace near a clergyman in white robes.Painting

Secondary source

Tennis Court Oath

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