Jean Germain DROUAIS (Paris 1763-Rome 1788)

Lot 138
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5000 - 7000 EUR
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Result : 48 944EUR
Jean Germain DROUAIS (Paris 1763-Rome 1788)
Caius Gracchus leaving his house to appease the sedition in which he perished Pen and brown ink, brown wash and white highlights. Bears an old inscription on the reverse of the pen mount The last of the Gracchi going to the Capitol./Last production of the famous Germain Drouais/Died at 22 years old in 1787, he had traced On the canvas/and made all the studies of this beautiful Composition/Architecture and background had been composed by/Auguste cheval de St Hubert famous architect/His intimate friend who died in 1799 at 43 years old/He had an etching made by piroli/which is in the hand of all artists. 29,5 x 42,5 cm Undertaken in 1787, a few months before his early death, Caius Gracchus leaving his house is one of the last two works by Jean Germain Drouais. The second being the painting Philoctetes, kept in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chartres (see the catalogue of the exhibition Jean Germain Drouais 1763-1788, Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 1985, n° 24, reproduced). Our drawing is preparatory to the monumental canvas (3.56 x 5.18 m) which Drouais had begun to execute and which was on view in his mother's home according to numerous accounts. There are many accounts of the genesis of this work, starting with those of the artist himself. A promising student in David's studio, Drouais told his master of the difficulty of finding an original subject for a story without having to encroach on his mentor's work (see Letter to David, September 1787, Paris, École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Ms 318, room 23). Drouais chose a tragic story taken from Plutarch's Lives of Illustrious Men. In 121 B.C., Caius Gracchus, a Roman tribune, leaves his home to carry out the reforms that will lead to his assassination. The subject is part of the exaltation of civic virtue, a theme dear to the painter. The setting with its imposing Roman architecture is a choice of Drouais, who designed it meticulously with the help of his friend, the architect Saint Hubert. This city in the background, which produces a feeling of encirclement, is interpreted by some art historians as the symbol of the enclosure of Liberty. The group of characters on the right, composed of virile figures, in particular Caius, who sets out firmly to meet the enemies who are going to kill him, is opposed to the group on the left, made up of grieving women. Another drawing, in pen and black ink and graphite (19.9 x 42.8 cm) is kept at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lille. It presents several variants with our work. One of the women on the left has disappeared and the pose of Licinia and Caius' child is different. Chartres (see the catalogue of the exhibition Jean Germain Drouais 1763-1788, Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 1985, n° 24, reproduced). Piroli's engraving is very close to our composition. It was intended to illustrate La vie de Drouais published in the Memorie of October 1788. In homage to Drouais after his death (see Op. cit. supra, reproduced under no. 24, p. 64, fig. 1).
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