Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson
French, 1767-1824
Fingal Mourning Over the Body of Malvina, from Ossian's Berrathon
INV-1889
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson
French, 1767-1824c. 1810
Fingal Mourning Over the Body of Malvina, from Ossian's Berrathon
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson French, 1767-1824 →chalkpaper
Date
c. 1810
Medium
Black chalk with brush and black ink and brown wash, heightened with white gouache, on ivory laid paper prepared with a gray wash
Dimensions
18.4 × 25.7 cm (7 1/4 × 10 1/8 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Celia and David Hilliard in honor of Jay Clarke
The dazzling, otherworldly, glow-in-the-dark effect Girodet achieved in this drawing is a testament to his extraordinary skill as a draftsman and painter, and to his all-consuming desire to be original.
Girodet illustrates a scene from a poem purportedly written by the ancient Scottish bard, Ossian, whose work was “discovered” and published in the 1760s. A famous literary hoax, the poems took Europe by storm. Here, Ossian’s father Fingal stands before the body of the dead Malvina, while her spirit ascends from the moonlit water behind him. Above Malvina’s body, spirits sparkle like stars.
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