Chateaubriand Meditating on the Ruins of Rome

Girodet portrayed François-René de Chateaubriand, a French writer and statesman associated with the conservative current opposed to the Revolution. The sitter stands in a pensive pose, gazing into the distance, while the ruins of ancient Rome stretch out behind him. The reference to the author's 1804 visit to the city helps explain the scene: it is less a studio portrait than an evocation of the traveller before the past. The wind-tossed hair and clothing reinforce a mood of unease and melancholy sensitivity. Over time the image came to serve as a visual model of the early Romantic masculine ideal, a man moved by history and nature. It was shown at the Salon of 1810 and is now held by the Musée d'Histoire de la Ville et du Pays Malouin in Saint-Malo, Brittany.

Painter

Anne-Louis Girodet

Date

1808

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

130 × 96 cm

Museum

Musée d’Histoire de la Ville et du Pays Malouin

Genre

portrait

Depicts

tree, architecture, Rome, François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand

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