Anne-Louis
Girodet, original name Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy, in
full (after 1806) Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson (born January
29, 1767, Montargis, France — died December 9, 1824, Paris),
painter whose works exemplify the first phase of Romanticism in
French art.
Girodet began to
study drawing in 1773. He later became a student of the
Neoclassical architect Étienne-Louis Boullée, with whose
encouragement he joined the studio of Jacques-Louis David in late
1783 or early 1784. Girodet won the Prix de Rome (1789) for his
Joseph Recognized by His Brothers, which shows the influence
of David's Neoclassicism. In The Sleep of Endymion
(1792) Girodet displays a new emotional element akin to the
troubled Romanticism of the novelist Chateaubriand. Girodet gave
his literary interests full reign in the composition of Ossian
and the French Generals (1801), painted for Napoleon's
residence, Malmaison. This unusual work melds images inspired by
James MacPherson's Ossianic works with images of the spirits
of the generals who died during the French Revolution of 1789.
Girodet continued to paint literary subjects in such works as
The Entombment of Atala (1808). The latter picture, together
with a windswept portrait of Chateaubriand meditating before the
Roman Colosseum (1809), is most typical of his work.
In 1806 Girodet was
adopted by and took the name of Benoît-François Trioson,
who was his tutor and guardian and probably his biological father.
Upon inheriting a large fortune (1815), Girodet-Trioson painted
little, shuttered himself from daylight, and wrote poetry about
painting, adjudged unreadable, and essays on aesthetics. The
Musée Girodet in Montargis contains many of his paintings and
drawings.