Philippe Auguste Hennequin’s Portrait Drawing of Sir Sidney Smith in the Temple Prison

Abstract

Museum of Art, a naval officer sits crosslegged at a desk and stares through the barred window of a prison cell, an open book in his hand (fig. 1). The drawing is pasted onto a blue mount and surrounded with inscriptions in English and French. Positioned immediately below the image, the French inscription comprises the artist’s signature: “fait au temple par hennequin ce 28 brumaire an 5 de la R.f. une et indivisible” [“made in the Temple by Hennequin on 28 brumaire year 5 of the French Republic, one and indivisible”]. Expressed in the French Revolutionary calendar, the date here equates to November 18, 1796. The signature is written in the squat handwriting of the artist Philippe Auguste Hennequin, who was at the time a political prisoner in the Tower of Philippe Auguste Hennequin’s Portrait Drawing of Sir Sidney Smith in the Temple Prison