Anne-Louis GIRODET de ROUCY-TRIOSON (1767-1824).... Lot 15

Anne-Louis GIRODET de ROUCY-TRIOSON (1767-1824). The feast of Anacreon. Original canvas and frame. Height : 18,7 cm 18,7 cm - Width : 24,6 cm Original frame in wood and gilded stucco with palmettes (label of Lavandier gilder in buildings and furniture). Provenance : Artist's studio, inventory after death established by Etienne Becquerel : Valérie Bajou, Sidonie Lemeux-Fraitot, Inventaires après-décès de Gros Girodet, 2002, page 360 (lot n°373). Sale after the artist's death: A.-N. Perignon, Catalogue des tableaux, esquisses, dessins et croquis de M. Girodet-Trioson, peintre d'histoire, [...], Paris, 1825, no. 30: "Sketch finished with care; composition of 4 figs. Anacreon seated next to two young players of instruments looks at a young nymph who is dancing while playing the tambourine; these figures stand out against a sky illuminated by the setting sun. T l. 9 p. h. 7 p. (ounces)". Purchased by Louis Joseph Auguste Coutan. As the drawing book in the Louvre indicates, it was on January 4, 1808 that Girodet began to illustrate Anacreon's Odes, which he had translated himself, sometimes taking liberties with the Greek text. The work was ready at the artist's death and the posthumous edition was published in 1825 by Chaillou-Potrelle (bibliography on this work: Sylvain Bellenger, catalog of the exhibition Girodet (1767-1824), Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2005-2006, p. 162 to 169). Several painted sketches are known, related to the prints of this collection, comparable to ours: "l'Enlèvement d'Europe" (Montargis, Musée Girodet), "Contre l'Or" (idem), "Ses voluptés" (Montpellier, Musée Fabre). Our sketch prepares the plate of the ode VI and includes some variations compared to the engraving: the place of the small Cupid is there a little more on the right, the flute of Pan here becomes a true flute, there is a rose in the hand of the lyric poet and fruits on the small table in the lithography. The bas-relief on the left and the Virginia creeper on our canvas on the right are absent from the illustration. Anacreontic subjects allowed painters such as Jean-Baptiste Regnault, François Gérard, Pierre-Narcisse Guérin and Girodet to escape from the virile Davidian doctrine, and to express sensuality and eroticism. The figure of the female dancer can be compared to the decorations of Girodet in the Ball Gallery at the Château de Compiègne (1815) or to the Galatea in the Louvre (1819). Expert : Mr Stéphane PINTA - Cabinet Eric TURQUIN - +33 1 47 03 48 78 - stephane.pinta@turquin.fr