COVE

Eighth drawing in an Unnamed Collection of vignettes illustrating Confessions, 1825

Artist: Paul Delaroche

Appears in the British Museum’s online collection

© The Trustees of the British Museum

This simple French style drawing is the eighth in a series of vignettes illustrating Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions. With dimensions of 61 millimetres in height and 85 millimetres in width, this small picture was produced in 1825 by French artist Paul Delaroche, and contrasts his more famous dramatic paintings of historical scenes. The sketch features a man seated on a bench outside a building with an ornate door to his side. Drawn on the recto, the mediums utilized in this drawing include graphite and brown wash on paper. It is signed “Delaroche” and dated “1825” in the bottom right corner. Acquired by the British Museum in 1946, it appears on their online collection.

Delaroche’s illustrations skillfully exhibit a specific, minor narrative featured in Rousseau’s Confessions. Particularly, when Rousseau finds temporary employment at Madam Basile’s shop. In this drawing, Rousseau is sitting outside a building all alone and most likely in deep contemplation. It is suggested that Delaroche was convinced to showcase such a miniscule incident as a representation of the journey in defining selfhood and to explore issues of authority and identity. Additionally, this drawing exemplifies the exact concepts of Romanticism that Rousseau encapsulates in both Confessions and Reveries of The Solitary Walker: the rise of self-written biography in defining selfhood, and the need for solitude in exploration and finding inspiration. 

Keywords: drawing, selfhood, autobiography, solitude, Rousseau

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1946-0713-1245