Annual Bulletin 7, 1983-1984
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The Shepherd Paris of
Jean-Germain Drouais
by John D. Bandiera
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Notes
33 Drouais was insistent that the three Horatii be nude (ref. Jacques
Hérissey, op. cit., p. 63), but David adamantly opposed the idea.
The nude figure of the Dying Athlete may represent Drouais fulfilling
his desire to paint an heroically nude Roman warrior.
34 Ganymede is seen in a painting of 1784 by Bénigne Gagneraux,
L'Entrevue de Gustave III avec le Pape Pie VI dans le Musée Pio Clementino
(Stockholm, Nationalmuseum). For an illustration, see Musée
des beaux-arts de Dijon, Bénigne Gagneraux, catalogue (Rome:
De Luca Editore, 1983), p. 99. In this picture it is prominently displayed
near the Apollo Belvedere and the museum rotunda.
35 See above, note 13.
36 Pierre Gautherot (1769-1825) became a student of Jacques-Louis David in 1787. Little
is known about him other than what is found in Thieme-Becker (p. 283) and
other encyclopaedic sources. He is important for this discussion because
of his ties to Drouais. He did the drawing for the Monsaldy print after
Drouais' Dying Athlete (see this paper fig. 3), and also exhibited
his own version (now lost) of Marius at Minturnaeat the Salon of
1796 (no.188). From the description in the Salon catalogue, we can infer
that he was directly influenced by Drouais' Marius at Minturnae. It
is possible that he was inspired to do his own Shepherd Paris because Drouais
had also painted one. This is speculative, but it adds some weight to the
argument in support of the attribution of The Shepherd Paris to
Drouais.
37 This is most obvious in the Phüoctetes, where Orouais transplanted
a 'Homeric' head onto a body that was probably modelled on an antique figure
of a River God or a relief depiction of Jupiter (cf. Reinach, op. cit.,
p, 88). The landscape background is above all reminiscent of the
seascapes of Joseph Vernet.
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