One of
David's students, Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson displayed a new emotional element akin to the troubled
Romanticism of the novelist
Chateaubriand.
Girodet-Trioson let his literary interest take full reign in the composition of
Ossian Receiving the Generals of Napoleon at the Palace of Odin (1801), painted for
Napoleon's residence, Malmaison. He soon
turned to a popular novel by Chateaubriand
Atala published in 1801 for the literary subject of his
Entombment of Atala. Girodet's unusual talent, given to
cavernous gloom and
spectral forms, was well suited to illustrating Chateaubriand. Girodet-Trioson won the
Prix de Rome (1789) for his
Joseph Recognized by His Brothers, which was influenced by the
cold, sober Neoclassicism of his teacher,
Jacques Louis David.
While in Italy he painted the
Sleeping Endymion, (
Louvre), which brought him recognition.
His Deluge (Louvre) demonstrates his interest in unusual color and lighting problems. Much of his work, including a series for Malmaison, glorifies Napoleon. His classical training was sometimes at variance with his romantic expression.
Upon inheriting a large fortune (1812), Girodet-Trioson ceased painting, shuttered himself from daylight, and wrote poetry, adjudged unreadable, on aesthetics.
Bibliography
Justus, Kevin. "Art and Culture II." Tucson , Arizona.
1992. (Lecture presented at Pima Community College.)
De La Croix, Horst, Richard D. Tansey, and Diane Kirkpatrick.
Art Through the Ages. University of Michigan: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
1991.