Saint Jerome

This powerful oil study of a studio model dressed in classical robes and holding a rock to his chest might be intended to depict the 4th-century ascetic saint and Church Father, St. Jerome, who, by tradition, was portrayed beating his chest with a rock in penance. The painting belonged to Rosine Girodet Becquerel-Despreaux , daughter of Antoine-Etiénne Girodet and Rustique Dupin, and the niece and only heir of the painter, Girodet. In 1825, Rosine married Denis Becquerel-Despreaux, and gave birth that year to a son, André Becquerel-Despreaux, heir to much of Rosine’s property. The present painting descended in the Becquerel family, along with numerous other paintings bequested by Girodet, until the end of the 20th century, and was lent by members of the Becquerel family to the great bicentennial exhibition commemorating Girodet’s birth held at the Musée Girodet, Montargis, in 1967.

It is probable that the painting was made as a study for a larger composition, but no finished painting to which it can be associated is known. Its handling indicates a date early in Girodet’s career, probably from the 1790s. In the sobriety of its subject and austerity of handling, it is close in style to Girodet’s large history picture of 1792, Hippocrates Refusing the Gifts of Artaxerxes (fig. 1; Faculté de Médecine, Musée d’Histoire de la Médecine, Paris).