Page 51 - Revolution Republique Empire Restauration
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Fig. 2
alongside his portraits of Chateaubriand and Saint- the artist’s Italian period and noted by Sylvain
Victor.2 Bellanger as the ‘most Davidian [portrait] that
Girodet ever painted.’3 In both portraits the sitter
However, the closest formal comparison with the is placed behind a desk scattered with writing
present work can be made with Girodet’s 1795 implements seated in a physically relaxed pose
portrait of the wealthy Genoese merchant which highlights by contrast the alert intensity of
Giuseppe Fravega (Fig. 2), painted in Genoa during the facial expression. In both portraits the subject’s
3. S. Bellanger, op. cit., p. 348.
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