Noteable Sales Achieved
Anne - Louis Girodet de Roucy, known as Girodet
Montangis 1767 - Paris 1824
The Sleep of Endymion
Canvas: 37.5 x 46 cm
Provenance:
Gilberto Zabert of Turin c1970
Private Collection, England
Literature:
The Burlington Magazine, Notable Works on the Market, December, 1970, Plate LVIII.
Gen. Bibliography:
Montargis, Musee Girodet, Girodet 1767 - 1824, 1967, (exhibition catalogue).
Certificate:
Christopher Wright, dated 9th November 1999.
Girodet was born in Montangis is 1767. He entered the studio of J - L David as an apprentice in 1786. After two attempts he won the Prix de Rome in 1789 with Joseph recognised by his brother(Ecole des Beaux - Arts, Paris). A Deposition (church of Montesquieu - Volvestre, Haut Garonne) dates from the same year. The shadowy emotion of this work prefigures the fuller Romanticism of his Funeral of Atala(1808; Louvre, Paris), inspired by the popular novel by Chateaubriand.
Girodets great versatility and talent meant that he could paint in all the leading styles of his day including the Neo-classical and the Romantic styles. Considered one of the leading French painters of the 18th century perhaps the key to his work is a sense of poetry such as in his Ossianic The Apotheosis of the French Heroes(1801; Malmaison, Rueil).
The Sleep of Endymion is a smaller version of what many consider to be Girodet’s masterpiece, the huge version(197 x 260 cm) of the same subject now in the Louvre. The larger version was painted in Rome in October 1791 and acquired by Louis VIII of France. In the past The Sleep of Endymion was believed to be a preparatory study for the Louvre painting but Christopher Wright believes it is a later work with Girodet reproducing the Louvre work to meet a demand caused by the success of that painting. He gives his reasons in the accompanying letter.
In Greek Mythology Endymion was the shepherd son of Aethelius. Zeus gave him eternal life and youth by allowing him to sleep perpetually on Mount Latmus. However, Endymion used to receive visitors whilst asleep such as in the present work. The story is used by Keats in his Endymion(1818) and Shakespeare wrote:-
“The moon sleeps with Endymion,
And would not be awaked”.
Merchant of Venice, V, i.
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