Portrait présumé du Cordonnier Simon

This 1794 portrait at the Musée de Troyes is presumed to depict the cobbler Simon, who served as guardian of the young Louis XVII in the Temple prison. If correctly identified, this would be an extraordinary document of the Revolution’s most notorious figures, the man entrusted with the imprisoned Dauphin’s care and alleged mistreatment. Characteristic of the artist's mature approach, the work displays monumental scale, vivid reportorial color, Romantic energy in figure groups, combining David's Neoclassical training with the excitement of actual military events.

The portrait shows a stark, unflattering directness appropriate to a figure of the Revolutionary era. Gros’s handling is more austere than his later work, reflecting the severe aesthetic of the Revolutionary period.