Collection Online as of December 5, 2020
Sketch for "The Revolt at Cairo"
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson
(French, 1767-1824)
Oil on paper, mounted on paper and canvas
Framed: 25 x 33 x 6.5 cm (9 13/16 x 13 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 15.2 x 23.3 cm (6 x 9 3/16 in.)
Gift of Eugene Victor Thaw 1965.310
Location
202 French Neoclassical Decorative Arts
Description
Several months after Napoleon's 1798 invasion of Egypt, rebellion erupted in Cairo. French troops viciously suppressed the uprising, including a massacre in the Al-Azhar Mosque of Mamelukes, an all-male group of warriors who occupied much of the Middle East at the time. Napoleon chose this subject for the artist, but because no documentation or eyewitness reports survived, Girodet freely interpreted the event. Interest in Mamelukes gripped France at this time. To ensure a steady supply of new recruits, Mamelukes enslaved and trained boys from across the Ottoman Empire, and the group at the right demonstrates Girodet's fascination with their racial diversity and perceived homoeroticism.
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson
On the advice of his architecture instructor Étienne-Louis Boullée (1728-1799), Girodet enrolled in the atelier of David (q.v.) in 1783 to study painting, working alongside other young artists like Gros (q.v.) and Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Wicar (1762-1834) who were also taught in David's neoclassical style. Girodet's early works display the influence of David in the linear and sculptural quality of his figures. After three consecutive years of competing for the Prix de Rome, he finally won at his fourth effort in 1789. Later that year the Revolution broke out in France and Girodet made numerous drawings of the fall of the Bastille. In 1790 he left for Italy where he stayed for five years. During that time his style changed and softened under the influence of the works of Leonardo (1452-1519) and Correggio (1489/94-1534). Girodet strove to be unique and original in his depictions and even went to great lengths to oppose David's neoclassicism. His new interest in atmospheric and light effects differed from that of his teacher. He made a name for himself at the Salon of 1793, with his submission of Sleep of Endymion (Musée du Louvre, Paris). After his return to Paris from Italy, Girodet became known as a portrait painter and accepted numerous commissions, but many of them were either late in delivery or never completed. Girodet's tendency to interpret commissions to prove his own originality often offended and alienated his patrons. He did not find official success at the Salon again until 1808 and produced little after 1815.