Pygmalion et Galatée
Pygmalion et Galatée c1819 by French Painter Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (1767 – 1824); was a student of Jacques-Louis David (you can see some of his artwork in the collection) and was part of the early Romantic Movement. He is noted for his clear and precise style and for paintings of the Napoleonic family.
This artwork based on the Greek and Roman Mythology of Pygmalion et Galatée, and shows Pygmalion in a state of surprise after praying and giving offerings to Venus the Goddess of Love wishing for a bride in the likeness of his beautifully perfect statue.
Reaching toward the statue he created; Galatée she begins to come to life with Cupid floating between them taking both their hands in union, in a mist of white and golden clouds on the temple ground, with a statue of what may be Venus to the left of them.
This is a retouched digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image that is available as a rolled canvas print online, as well as acrylic, metal, rolled canvas and wood prints.
Info Below Derived From Wikipedia.org
Girodet was a French painter and pupil of Jacques-Louis David, who participated in the early Romantic movement by including elements of eroticism in his paintings. Girodet is remembered for his precise and clear style and for his paintings of members of the Napoleonic family.
Girodet was born at Montargis. Both of his parents died when he was a young adult. The care of his inheritance and education fell to his guardian, a prominent physician named Benoît-François Trioson, “médecin-de-mesdames”, who later adopted him. The two men remained close throughout their lives and Girodet took the surname Trioson in 1812.
In school he first studied architecture and pursued a military career. He changed to the study of painting under a teacher named Luquin and then entered the school of Jacques-Louis David.
At the age of 22 he successfully competed for the Prix de Rome with a painting of the Story of Joseph and his Brethren.
From 1789 to 1793 he lived in Italy and while in Rome he painted his Hippocrate refusant les presents d’Artaxerxes and Endymion-dormant (now in the Louvre), a work which gained him great acclaim at the Salon of 1793 and secured his reputation as a leading painter in the French school.
Once he returned to France, Girodet painted many portraits, including some of members of the Bonaparte family. In 1806, in competition with the Sabines of David, he exhibited his Scène de déluge (Louvre), which was awarded the decennial prize.
In 1808 he produced the Reddition de Vienne and Atala au tombeau, a work which won immense popularity, by its fortunate choice of subject, François-René de Chateaubriand’s novel Atala, first published in 1801; and its remarkable departure from the theatricality of Girodet’s usual manner. He would return to his theatrical style in La Révolte du Caire (1810).
