Jacques-Louis David illustration exceeds estimate by 568%

A double-sided illustration by Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) headlined a sale of Old Master Drawings at Sotheby's on January 28, selling for $401,000. 

It smashed its estimate of $60,000 by 568.3%. 

Soldiers David Sothebys
David was heavily involved in the French revolution

The first work, the hilariously titled Nude Soldiers Gesticulating with their Weapons, depicts a group of Sabine soldiers and was executed as a study for the artist's painting, The Intervention of the Sabine Women.

On the reverse is a pair of drapery studies, which were used in the depiction of Tatius, King of the Sabines. 

David was a major neo-classicist painter who played a key role in the French revolution. 

He was an important teacher of art during the 18th century and his influence can be seen in much of the work produced in the French salons during that time. 

Henry Fuseli's The Witches Floating Above Macbeth and Banquo made $281,000 - an increase of 251.2%. 

The lot illustrates one of the most iconic scenes in Shakespeare's Macbeth, which sees the two generals coming across the witches on the "blasted heath". 

The piece dates to the 1780s and was produced as a study for Fuseli's The Three Witches Appear before Macbeth and Banquo, a work that was lost many years ago.

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