Coriolanus Taking Leave of his Family
Historical Context
Anne-Louis Girodet's Coriolanus Taking Leave of his Family from 1786 is an early Neoclassical history painting depicting the Roman general's exile, produced when the artist was still a student of Jacques-Louis David. The subject of Coriolanus, the proud warrior who chose exile over compromise, resonated with the political tensions of pre-Revolutionary France. Girodet's treatment shows his emerging independence from David's more austere classicism.
Technical Analysis
Girodet's oil-on-canvas technique demonstrates his Davidian training with precise figure drawing and clear spatial organization. The warm palette and emotional expressiveness of the figures already distinguish his approach from David's cooler classicism, anticipating his later Romantic tendencies.
Provenance
The artist's entry in the 1786 competition for the Prix de Rome.[1] possibly given by the artist to Antoine Laurent Lavoisier [1743-1794] and/or his wife, Mme Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze Lavoisier [1758-1836; after 1804, Comtesse de Rumford], Paris; seized 1794 by the French state; returned 1796 to Mme Lavoisier.[2] private collection, France, from at least the early 20th century; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, New York, 29 October 2019, no. 749); purchased by NGA. [1] Girodet was one of seven finalists in the competition, and his painting is the only one known to have survived. The Prix de Rome exhibition did not take place that year, however, because none of the paintings were deemed worthy to receive the prize. Written in an 18th-century hand on a label on the reverse of the stretcher, which is original, is the following: "Les adieux de Coriolan à sa famille. Peint par Girodet en 1786. – Concours pour le grand prix qui ne fut donné à aucun des concurrents." ("The farewell of Coriolanus to his family. Painted by Girodet in 1786. Competition for the grand prize which was not given to any of the competitors."). There are also the remnants of a red wax seal on the top stretcher member, and on the reverse of the canvas, in the upper right, is a circular red wax seal on which can be read: ...CADE..• PARIS... REG • ...MARIA •...T... The seal on the canvas is that of the French Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture), which also depicts the head of Minerva. [2] Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry and biology, a director of the tobacco and gunpowder industries, a banker, an economist, and an early advocate of the French Revolution, was executed in May 1794 during the Revolution on charges stemming from his role in the _Ferme générale_ (General Farm), a private company with sixty stockholders that was in charge of collecting indirect taxes for the king. Lavoisier's wife, who was also his scientific assistant, was a friend of Girodet. Following Lavoisier's execution, a 178 page inventory was made of his books, furniture, works of art, and scientific instruments, all of which were confiscated and turned over to the institutions of the State, and subsequently returned to Mme Lavoisier in 1796. See: Jean-Pierre Poirier, _Lavoisier: Chemist, Biologist, Economist_, translated by Rebecca Balinski, Philadelphia, 1996: 388-390, 462 n. 3. The original inventory of Lavoisier's belongings, "Inventaire après le décès du Cit. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier," is held by the Archives Nationales, Paris, Cote (Record Group) MC/ET/XCIX/754, and has been digitized: https://www.siv.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr/siv/rechercheconsultation/consultation/ir/consultationIR.action?irId=FRAN_IR_043056&udId=c1p73eoyb01n--1wma9hvcpd3sj&details=true&gotoArchivesNums=false&auSeinIR=true (accessed 19 August 2020; copy in NGA curatorial files). It is also available in the Lavoisier Manuscript Collection, Archives 4712, Series VIIIA, Box 49, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Kroch Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
