National Gallery acquires painting estimated $120K/150K for $ 2.6 Million.
Washington, National Gallery acquired Coriolanus farewell to his family by Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson.
The National gallery bought the painting $ 2,600,000, on an estimate of $ 120,000-159,000 at Christie's, October 29, 2019
Sidonie Lemeux-Fraitot, the artist expert and collections specialist at the Girodet Museum, was told about this sale three weeks ago. She confessed that she had been looking for the work forever. It is indeed an essential canvas of the painter's youth. The painting was the participation of Girodet in the Concours of the Prix de Rome of 1786, which did not see a winner.
Among the finalists, besides Girodet, there were also several important artists, including Fabre, Wicar, and Guillon-Lethière. If Girodet's painting was considered superior to those of his competitors, the resemblances between the different works of David's pupils were so strong that the Jury suspected that the artists had received the help of their master.
Girodet had to compete three more times before getting the Grand Prix he dreamed of.
In 1787 he was eliminated because he had used drawings made outside his Concours studio. The painting, Nebuchadnezzar has the children of Zedekiah killed, is in the Tesse Museum of Le Mans.
The following year, he obtained only the Second Prize with The Death of Tatius, which is in the Museum of Fine Arts of Angers.
It was not until 1789 that he won the Concours, with Joseph recognizing his brothers, today in Paris Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
