Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson
Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson | |
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Born | Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson 29 January 1767 |
Died | 9 December 1824 Paris, France | (aged 57)
Resting place | Père Lachaise Cemetery |
Known for | Painting |
Notable work | Ossian receiving the ghosts of the fallen French Heroes, 1801; The Funeral of Atala, 1808; Portrait de Chateaubriand méditant sur les ruines de Rome, after 1808 |
Movement | Classicism, Romanticism |
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (French pronunciation:
Early career
Girodet was born at Montargis. Both of his parents died when he was a young adult. The care of his inheritance and education fell to his guardian, a prominent physician named Benoît-François Trioson, "médecin-de-mesdames", who later adopted him. The two men remained close throughout their lives and Girodet took the surname Trioson in 1812.[1] In school he first studied architecture and pursued a military career.[2] He changed to the study of painting under a teacher named Luquin and then entered the school of Jacques-Louis David. At the age of 22 he successfully competed for the Prix de Rome with a painting of the Story of Joseph and his Brethren.[2][3] From 1789 to 1793 he lived in Italy and while in Rome he painted his Hippocrate refusant les presents d'Artaxerxes and Endymion-dormant (now in the Louvre), a work which gained him great acclaim at the Salon of 1793 and secured his reputation as a leading painter in the French school.
Once he returned to France, Girodet painted many portraits, including some of members of the Bonaparte family. In 1806, in competition with the Sabines of David, he exhibited his Scène de déluge (Louvre), which was awarded the decennial prize.[1] In 1808 he produced the Reddition de Vienne and Atala au tombeau, a work which won immense popularity, by its fortunate choice of subject – François-René de Chateaubriand's novel Atala, first published in 1801 – and its remarkable departure from the theatricality of Girodet's usual manner. He would return to his theatrical style in La Révolte du Caire (1810).[4]
Later life
Girodet was a member of the
In his forties his powers began to fail, and his habit of working at night and other excesses weakened his constitution. In the Salon of 1812 he exhibited only a Tête de Vierge; in 1819
Posthumously published work
Girodet produced a vast quantity of illustrations, amongst which may be cited those for the Didot editions of the works of
Girodet: Romantic Rebel at the Art Institute of Chicago (2006) was the first retrospective in the United States devoted to the works of Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson. The exhibition assembled more than 100 seminal works (about 60 paintings and 40 drawings) that demonstrated the artist's range as a painter as well as a draftsman.[6]
Analysis of the works
Girodet was trained in the neoclassical style of his teacher, Jacques-Louis David, seen in his treatment of the male nude body and his reference to models from the Renaissance and Classical antiquity. However, he also deviated from this style in several ways. The peculiarities which mark Girodet's position as the herald of the romantic movement are already evident in his Sleep of Endymion (1791, also called Effet de lune or "effect of the Moon").[4] Although the subject matter and pose are inspired by classical precedents, Girodet's diffuse lighting is more theatrical and atmospheric. The androgynous depiction of the sleeping shepherd Endymion is also noteworthy.[7] These early romantic effects were even more notable in his Ossian, exhibited in 1802. Girodet portrayed recently killed Napoleonic soldiers being welcomed into Valhalla by the fictional bard Ossian. The painting is striking for its inclusion of phosphorescent meteors, vaporous luminosity, and spectral protagonists.[8]
The same coupling of classic and romantic elements marks Girodet's Danae (1799) and his Quatre Saisons, executed for the king of Spain (repeated for Compiègne), and shows itself to a ludicrous extent in his Fingal (Leuchtenberg collection, St. Petersburg), executed for Napoleon in 1802. Girodet can be seen here combining aspects of his classical training and traditional education with new literary trends, popular scientific spectacles, and a consummate interest in the strange and the bizarre. In this way his work announces the rise of a romantic aesthetic which prizes individuality, expression, and imagination over an adherence to classical academic precedents.
Gallery
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Brutus condemns his sons to death (Brutus condamne ses fils à mort), 1785
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The Oath of the Horatii (Le Serment des Horaces, copy after David's original), 1786, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio
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The Death of Tatius (La mort de Tatius), 1788, Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Angers
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Joseph recognized by his brothers (Joseph reconnu par ses frères), 1789,École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris
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Portrait of a Youth (Portrait d'une jeunesse), c. 1795, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts
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Portrait of Giuseppe Fravega (ministre of the Ligurian Republic in Paris), 1796, Musée des beaux-arts de Marseille
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Benoît-Agnès Trioson regardant des figures dans un livre, 1797, Musée Girodet, Montargis
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Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley, Deputy for Saint-Domingue, 1797, Palace of Versailles
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Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota
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Benoît-Agnes Trioson, 1800, Louvre, Paris
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Napoleon Bonaparte, Premier Consul,Palais de l'Elysée
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Portrait ofDominique-Jean Larrey(military surgeon in Napoleon's army), 1804, Louvre
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Portrait of the Katchef Dahouth, Christian Mameluke, 1804, Art Institute of Chicago
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Napoléon Bonaparte), 1806
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Madame Erneste Bioche de Misery, 1807, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
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Portrait de Chateaubriand méditant sur les ruines de Rome, 1808, Musée d'Histoire de la Ville et du Pays Malouin, Saint-Malo
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Portrait of Hortense de Beauharnais, Queen of Holland, wife of King Louis Napoleon, c. 1809, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
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Sketch for The Revolt at Cairo, c. 1809, Cleveland Museum of Art
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The Revolt of Cairo, oil and Indian ink on paper, c. 1810, Art Institute of Chicago
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Portrait of Charles-Louis Balzac, 1811, Dallas Museum of Art
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Portrait ofProsper de Barante, 1814, Musée d'art Roger-Quilliot, Clermont-Ferrand
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Allegory of Victory, c. 1815, Château de Compiègne
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Aurora, c. 1815, Château de Compiègne
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Minerva between Apollo and Mercury, c. 1815, Château de Compiègne
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Jacques Cathelineau, généralissime vendéen, 1816, Musée d'art et d'histoire de Cholet
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Charles-Melchior Arthus, Marquis de Bonchamps, 1816, Musée d'art et d'histoire de Cholet
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Portrait de Madame Reizet assise, 1820
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Madame Jacques-Louis-Étienne Reizet, 1823, Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Portrait of Jacques-Joseph de Cathelineau (1787–1832), son of the généralissime
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Capaneus, Leader of The Seven against Thebes (Tête du Blasphémateur), study for Les sept chefs devant Thèbes, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm
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Undated portrait of François-René de Chateaubriand
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Portrait du Docteur Trioson donnant une leçon de géographie à son fils, undated, Musée Girodet, Montargis
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Portrait of Joachim Murat (?), Hermitage Museum
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f Long, George. (1851) The Supplement to the Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, C. Knight.
- ^ ISBN 2-8041-1526-7.
- ^ Heck, Johann Georg. (1860) Iconographic Encyclopaedia of Science, D. Appleton and company.
- ^ a b c d public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Girodet de Roussy, Anne Louis". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 48. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- RKD
- ^ "Girodet: Romantic Rebel". Art Institute of Chicago. Archived from the original on 23 July 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-19.
- JSTOR 777650.
- S2CID 192721947.
Further reading
- French painting 1774-1830: the Age of Revolution. New York; Detroit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Detroit Institute of Arts. 1975. (see index)
External links
- Miscellaneous works (Art Renewal Center)
- Three portraits by Girodet (Insecula encyclopedia)
- Works of Girodet at http://www.the-athenaeum.org