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introspective gaze is directed beyond the canvas and the artist with an elaborate and shrewdly engi-
the facial features are painted delicately and yet neered promotional campaign. Saint-Victor shared
vividly. Girodet gives both men the same vermilion Girodet’s fascination with the Ossian poems and in
in the lips and cheeks and even five-o’clock shadow 1806 even dedicated his libretto for Étienne Méhul’s
to lend verismo and vitality to their pale complex- Ossianic opera Uthal to the artist. In fact, it is
ions which contrast with the deep chiaroscuro of tempting to read Girodet’s reference to Homer in
their plain costumes. Saint-Victor’s portrait as a nod to their shared taste
for MacPherson’s romantic fraud; comparisons
After the turn of the century Girodet developed a between ‘blind’ Ossian and ‘blind’ Homer were an
remarkable versatility in his portraiture for captur- established conceit among fans of the genre.
ing the unique and intrinsic character of his subjects, However, the book could equally refer to his respect
as illustrated by the portraits of the artist’s adoptive for Saint-Victor’s reputation as a scholar and trans-
brother, Benoît Agnès Trioson, or his iconic images lator of classical verse. Among other works, Girodet
of Chateaubriand and Jean-Baptiste Belley.4 After and Saint-Victor shared an enthusiasm for Anacreon
1799, the romantic influence of Gros and Gérard and in the course of their discussions into the sub-
began to overshadow Davidian formalism in his por- ject began, around 1807, to form the idea of a pro-
traiture and by the second decade of the 19th fessional collaboration to publish an illustrated ver-
Century Girodet favoured depicting his sitters bust- sion of Saint-Victor’s translation of the Odes.7
length and with a direct gaze, as in his portrait of the Girodet apparently set to work immediately with a
architect and poet Louis-Charles Balzac (1811).5 passion and conviction that was in no small part a
This begs the question why two years later the artist reflection of his deeply Hellenic leanings. Girodet
appears to have chosen to revert to the Davidian was so captivated by the project that he eventually
model for his portrait of Saint-Victor. It is possible abandoned Saint-Victor in favour of making his own
that the answer lies partly in the artist’s specific rela- translation to accompany his illustrations. When
tionship with his subject. Saint-Victor’s version was published in 1810 it con-
tained only two of Girodet’s vignettes, along with
A close friend and admirer of the artist and his work another two by Pierre Bouillon, all of which were
it is not certain when Saint-Victor first met engraved by Karl Girardet. The author’s disappoint-
Girodet. We know that in 1802 the comte sent ment in Girodet’s desertion of their project was
Girodet a poem he had written in praise of Ossian clearly expressed in his preface to his own version.
recevant les guerriers français dans ses palais aériens.6 Here, Saint-Victor tells his ‘friend’ in so many
Girodet’s bizarrely original composition was exhib- words that were it not for the opportunity to part-
ited in that year’s Salon and had been publicized by ner with Girodet to reinterpret Anacreon via an

4. Ibid., cat. nos. 77-78; cat. no. 67; and cat. no. 66., all illus..
5. Ibid., p. 318, ill. 214.
6. Printed in the Journal de Paris, 1803, 6 messidor (24 June). Also included in Œuvres poétiques de J. B. de Saint-Victor, Paris, C. Gosselin, 1822, p. 325.
7. A sketchbook dated 14 January 1808, in the Louvre’s Department of Prints and Drawings includes what are considered to be his earliest studies for
these illustrations. See B. Jobert, ‘Girodet and Printmaking’, in s.Bellanger, op. cit., pp. 162-166.

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