Galvina, from Collection of Study Heads

Aubry-Lecomte, a student of Girodet, used the new art of lithography to reproduce the heightened facial expressions then prevalent in Romantic history painting. This evocative lithograph, shown at the Salon of 1822, is based on Girodet’s 1802 painting Ossian Receiving Napoleonic Officers (in the collection of Chateau du Malmaison). Galvina, shown at the left, is a tragic character from the fabricated epic poetry of the fictional Scottish bard Ossian, highly popular in the 18th century.