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Groupe des filles des bardes, préparatoire pour le tableau d'Ossian
细节
ANNE-LOUIS GIRODET DE ROUSSY-TRIOSON (MONTARGIS 1767-1824 PARIS)
Groupe des filles des bardes, préparatoire pour le tableau d'Ossian
avec inscriptions ‘Vente Girodet Dessein de Lui./dessin de M Girodet acheté sous le no120 du Catalogue. le 11 avril: 1000 f.’ (verso)
pierre noire, craie blanche, estompe
35 x 53,5 cm (13 ¾ x 21 1⁄8 in.)
Groupe des filles des bardes, préparatoire pour le tableau d'Ossian
avec inscriptions ‘Vente Girodet Dessein de Lui./dessin de M Girodet acheté sous le no120 du Catalogue. le 11 avril: 1000 f.’ (verso)
pierre noire, craie blanche, estompe
35 x 53,5 cm (13 ¾ x 21 1⁄8 in.)
来源
Vente d'atelier de l’artiste ; Paris, 11 avril 1825, lot 120, ‘Une feuille d’études d’après nature pour les divers groupes de filles des bardes du tableau d’Ossian. Ce dessin fait, dans l’origine, au crayon noir sur papier blanc, a été nouvellement retouché à l’estompe et remonté d’effet par M. Girodet’.
Benjamin Fillon (1819-1881), Vendée, puis par descendance au propriétaire actuel.
Inscrit aux Monuments Historiques (2012).
Benjamin Fillon (1819-1881), Vendée, puis par descendance au propriétaire actuel.
Inscrit aux Monuments Historiques (2012).
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ANNE-LOUIS GIRODET DE ROUSSY-TRIOSON, GROUP OF WOMEN PREPARATORY FOR OSSIAN, BLACK AND WHITE CHALK, STUMP
The Passion for Ossian
Around 1800, the European intellectual world became captivated by the poems of Ossian, a mythical bard said to have lived in the third century. Their success stemmed from James Macpherson, the Irish scholar who published a compilation supposedly translated from ancient Gaelic between 1760 and 1765, though in reality it was largely the product of his own invention. Despite the questionable origins of these texts, their popularity naturally reached Girodet through the French translations. Raised with an enlightened education by his father, the young painter was deeply sensitive to these pre-Romantic verses. He seized upon the poems with enthusiasm, revitalising his imagination through a sombre and lyrical series of drawings executed in the 1790s illustrating Ossianic episodes. A group acquired in 1971 is today preserved at the Musée Girodet in Montargis. These drawings, marked by great freedom of execution, combine black chalk, wash and white heightening. Girodet distanced himself from the lessons of his master David and from Antiquity, his style having evolved through his stay in Italy where he encountered the graphic innovations of Henry Fuseli and John Flaxman.
A Commission for Malmaison
From 1800 onward, Girodet returned to the theme of Ossian for the commission of The Apotheosis of the French Heroes for Malmaison. His master Jacques Louis David, upon seeing the painting, did not appreciate its originality and is said to have declared: ‘Well then! Girodet is mad! He is mad, or I understand nothing more about the art of painting. He has made figures of crystal…’ (ibid., p. 140). Girodet executed the painting during the Consulate, shortly before allegory was abandoned in favour of the depiction of contemporary events, according to the wishes of the future emperor. Although the painting received a mixed reception at the Salon, Girodet was deeply gratified by the remark of Napoleon Bonaparte: “You have had a great idea. The figures in your painting are true shades. I believe I see generals I once knew” (ibid., p. 367). In 1821, with the help of his pupils, Girodet published a set of sixteen lithographs reproducing certain faces from the painting, half of which are those of the women depicted in the present drawing.
An Unpublished Drawing
To perfect the complex composition of his work, Girodet laboured over it for fifteen months in his studio at the Louvre. Several related drawings survive, including an initial overall study in a private collection (ibid., p. 241, cat. 24). The present drawing, previously unpublished, enriches our understanding of the painting and focuses exclusively on the female figures. Girodet described them in his text written for the Salon of 1802: ‘In the foreground of the painting, a swarm of young girls, half clothed in their veils of mist, come forward to meet the strangers. One offers them crowns, another scatters flowers at their feet, several offer drink in shells’ (ibid., p. 239). The preparatory nature of the drawing is confirmed by the absence of Victory, probably added later, and by the omission of certain figures retained only in the painted sketch now at the Musée du Louvre (RF2359; ibid., no. 22), such as the woman with raised arms turning her head backward.
Other women in the drawing appear in the final painting but have been moved to the lower register of the composition. Thus, the two harp players on the left side of the sheet reappear on the left of the finished canvas and are identified by Girodet as Evirallina, wife of Ossian, and Malvina, wife of Oscar. Their hands hover over the harp, one expressing tender admiration, the other blushing with modesty. Below them, two further women reappear, one bowing her head forward and the other holding her companion’s hand. The woman holding a harp on the right is also transferred to the painting, although she plays a flute instead. The six women forming an arc at the bottom of the drawing are relocated to the summit of the painted composition, reduced to four and barely visible, bringing laurel crowns to the French heroes. Finally, the four small scale figures at the bottom of the sheet served as studies for the figure in the upper left corner of the painting, whose face is partially concealed by the wing of an eagle.
A Personal Graphic Style
In the sale of the artist’s studio in Paris on 11 April 1825, the present drawing is mentioned, and the catalogue entry informs us that Girodet reworked the sheet much later, undoubtedly to refine a work he considered complete: “A sheet of studies from nature for the various groups of the maidens of the bards in the painting of Ossian. This drawing, originally executed in black chalk on white paper, was newly reworked with stumping and strengthened in effect by Monsieur Girodet.” This two-stage treatment gives the sheet its exceptional character, where the artist’s stylistic registers merge. Girodet retained the academic precision inherited from David with finely applied black chalk. By contrast, the freedom of composition, the use of stumping and the white heightening link the drawing to his Ossianic series where the fluidity of line responds to the lyrical flights of the subject. The preparatory character of the sheet justifies these particularities and distinguishes it from the first Ossian drawings, personal works executed for their own sake.
Benjamin Fillon, an Erudite Collector
This drawing, connected with one of the most celebrated Ossianic paintings of French art, stands as a major rediscovery for the study of Girodet’s graphic oeuvre. It sheds new light on the artist’s approach to drawing, both as a preparatory instrument and as an autonomous medium. Its unpublished status is explained by its recent reappearance in a nineteenth century collection, that of Benjamin Fillon. Judge at La Roche sur Yon in the Vendée and appointed prefect of the département in 1870, Fillon also devoted himself to art history. He collaborated with the Société de l’Histoire de l’Art Français and collected regional curiosities as well as several important drawings, among them this work by Girodet. The sheet was purchased at the sale following the artist’s death, most likely by a member of the Girardin family, according to annotations in a sale catalogue, possibly Louis Stanislas de Girardin (1762–1827), deputy of Seine Maritime, or his son Ernest Stanislas (1801–1874), deputy of Charente from 1831 to 1851. It then entered the Fillon collection, where it remained with his descendants until today.
Ce lot est inscrit aux Monuments Historiques depuis le 5 avril 2012 par arrêté. Ce lot pourra quitter le territoire français et sera vendu avec son certificat de bien culturel. L’identité et les coordonnées de l’acquéreur devront juste être communiquées aux autorités administratives françaises compétentes.
The Passion for Ossian
Around 1800, the European intellectual world became captivated by the poems of Ossian, a mythical bard said to have lived in the third century. Their success stemmed from James Macpherson, the Irish scholar who published a compilation supposedly translated from ancient Gaelic between 1760 and 1765, though in reality it was largely the product of his own invention. Despite the questionable origins of these texts, their popularity naturally reached Girodet through the French translations. Raised with an enlightened education by his father, the young painter was deeply sensitive to these pre-Romantic verses. He seized upon the poems with enthusiasm, revitalising his imagination through a sombre and lyrical series of drawings executed in the 1790s illustrating Ossianic episodes. A group acquired in 1971 is today preserved at the Musée Girodet in Montargis. These drawings, marked by great freedom of execution, combine black chalk, wash and white heightening. Girodet distanced himself from the lessons of his master David and from Antiquity, his style having evolved through his stay in Italy where he encountered the graphic innovations of Henry Fuseli and John Flaxman.
A Commission for Malmaison
From 1800 onward, Girodet returned to the theme of Ossian for the commission of The Apotheosis of the French Heroes for Malmaison. His master Jacques Louis David, upon seeing the painting, did not appreciate its originality and is said to have declared: ‘Well then! Girodet is mad! He is mad, or I understand nothing more about the art of painting. He has made figures of crystal…’ (ibid., p. 140). Girodet executed the painting during the Consulate, shortly before allegory was abandoned in favour of the depiction of contemporary events, according to the wishes of the future emperor. Although the painting received a mixed reception at the Salon, Girodet was deeply gratified by the remark of Napoleon Bonaparte: “You have had a great idea. The figures in your painting are true shades. I believe I see generals I once knew” (ibid., p. 367). In 1821, with the help of his pupils, Girodet published a set of sixteen lithographs reproducing certain faces from the painting, half of which are those of the women depicted in the present drawing.
An Unpublished Drawing
To perfect the complex composition of his work, Girodet laboured over it for fifteen months in his studio at the Louvre. Several related drawings survive, including an initial overall study in a private collection (ibid., p. 241, cat. 24). The present drawing, previously unpublished, enriches our understanding of the painting and focuses exclusively on the female figures. Girodet described them in his text written for the Salon of 1802: ‘In the foreground of the painting, a swarm of young girls, half clothed in their veils of mist, come forward to meet the strangers. One offers them crowns, another scatters flowers at their feet, several offer drink in shells’ (ibid., p. 239). The preparatory nature of the drawing is confirmed by the absence of Victory, probably added later, and by the omission of certain figures retained only in the painted sketch now at the Musée du Louvre (RF2359; ibid., no. 22), such as the woman with raised arms turning her head backward.
Other women in the drawing appear in the final painting but have been moved to the lower register of the composition. Thus, the two harp players on the left side of the sheet reappear on the left of the finished canvas and are identified by Girodet as Evirallina, wife of Ossian, and Malvina, wife of Oscar. Their hands hover over the harp, one expressing tender admiration, the other blushing with modesty. Below them, two further women reappear, one bowing her head forward and the other holding her companion’s hand. The woman holding a harp on the right is also transferred to the painting, although she plays a flute instead. The six women forming an arc at the bottom of the drawing are relocated to the summit of the painted composition, reduced to four and barely visible, bringing laurel crowns to the French heroes. Finally, the four small scale figures at the bottom of the sheet served as studies for the figure in the upper left corner of the painting, whose face is partially concealed by the wing of an eagle.
A Personal Graphic Style
In the sale of the artist’s studio in Paris on 11 April 1825, the present drawing is mentioned, and the catalogue entry informs us that Girodet reworked the sheet much later, undoubtedly to refine a work he considered complete: “A sheet of studies from nature for the various groups of the maidens of the bards in the painting of Ossian. This drawing, originally executed in black chalk on white paper, was newly reworked with stumping and strengthened in effect by Monsieur Girodet.” This two-stage treatment gives the sheet its exceptional character, where the artist’s stylistic registers merge. Girodet retained the academic precision inherited from David with finely applied black chalk. By contrast, the freedom of composition, the use of stumping and the white heightening link the drawing to his Ossianic series where the fluidity of line responds to the lyrical flights of the subject. The preparatory character of the sheet justifies these particularities and distinguishes it from the first Ossian drawings, personal works executed for their own sake.
Benjamin Fillon, an Erudite Collector
This drawing, connected with one of the most celebrated Ossianic paintings of French art, stands as a major rediscovery for the study of Girodet’s graphic oeuvre. It sheds new light on the artist’s approach to drawing, both as a preparatory instrument and as an autonomous medium. Its unpublished status is explained by its recent reappearance in a nineteenth century collection, that of Benjamin Fillon. Judge at La Roche sur Yon in the Vendée and appointed prefect of the département in 1870, Fillon also devoted himself to art history. He collaborated with the Société de l’Histoire de l’Art Français and collected regional curiosities as well as several important drawings, among them this work by Girodet. The sheet was purchased at the sale following the artist’s death, most likely by a member of the Girardin family, according to annotations in a sale catalogue, possibly Louis Stanislas de Girardin (1762–1827), deputy of Seine Maritime, or his son Ernest Stanislas (1801–1874), deputy of Charente from 1831 to 1851. It then entered the Fillon collection, where it remained with his descendants until today.
Ce lot est inscrit aux Monuments Historiques depuis le 5 avril 2012 par arrêté. Ce lot pourra quitter le territoire français et sera vendu avec son certificat de bien culturel. L’identité et les coordonnées de l’acquéreur devront juste être communiquées aux autorités administratives françaises compétentes.
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Hélène Rihal
Head of Department
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