A work made of pen and black ink and black chalk, with stumping, and brush and brown and gray wash, heightened with white gouache, on ivory laid paper.

Hermione Rejecting Orestes

c. 1799

Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson French, 1767-1824

France

Girodet was one of the star pupils of Jacques Louis David. As a young man, he supported himself by making drawings as book illustrations. For the deluxe three-volume edition of the works of Jean Racine, published in 1801, Girodet provided drawings for Phaedra and Andromaque. This sheet is a preparatory work for the latter; it is the scene in which Hermione spurns Orestes after he has killed Pyrrhus at her request.

Pen and black ink and black chalk, with stumping, and brush and brown and gray wash, heightened with white gouache, on ivory laid paper

Prints and Drawings