Study for a Portrait of an "Indian" by Girodet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 2010

Study for Portrait of an Indian
Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson (French, 1767–1824)
Oil on canvas
16 x 12 7/8 in. (40.6 x 32.7 cm)
Purchase, Gift of Joanne Toor Cummings, by exchange, 1997 (1997.371)

Anne-Louis Girodet was, after Ingres, the most gifted painter to emerge from the studio of Jacques-Louis David. Returning to Paris after his stay at the French Academy in Rome, Girodet developed a style marked by literary preciosity, imaginary pictorial effects, and exotic subjects and settings. This is the oil sketch for a lifesize portrait now at the Musée Girodet at Montargis. When the lifesize canvas was sold at the posthumous auction of Girodet's studio, it was catalogued as a portrait of an Indian and dated 1807. The costume, however, is Ottoman, not Indian.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1997.371