This website accompaniment to the exhibition Girodet: Romantic Rebel, currently on view at the Art Institute of Chicago, features about 20 paintings and drawings by Girodet. Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy- Trioson (1767–1824) was trained in the workshop of Jacques-Louis David, who is considered the leading painter of the French Revolution (last mentioned in the February 18, 2005 Scout Report http://scout.wisc.edu/ Reports/ScoutReport/2005/scout-050218-geninterest.php#2). Girodet broke with the strict neoclassical style of his master to develop his own more romantic and dreamy style. The subjects of Girodet's paintings were often drawn from contemporary, 18th century, interpretations of myths, such as the legend of Ossian, a Nordic "myth" contrived by the writer James Macpherson. Girodet also painted Atala, an American Indian woman character from the novel by Chateaubriand, a friend of the artist. Navigate the site by jumping immediately to the Selected Works section, or browse Exhibition Themes. Either way, don't miss the section on the conservation of the Revolt of Cairo (1810), to see how AIC conservators used infrared reflectography imaging (IR) to reveal an extensive under-drawing.
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