FRANCOIS PASCAL SIMON GERARD, CALLED BARON GERARD
1770 – Rome – 1837 – Paris
Orpheus Holding Eurydice
(The Georgics, Canto IV )
Pen and wash of India ink and bistre ink, watercolor and whit gouahce
210 x 155 mm.
Circa 1791.
Private purchase for the Städel Museum.
Origin:
Firmin Didot ( 1764 – 1836 ), his sale 1810 or ( 1814 ? ); Charles Rollin ( numismatist ); by descent , the Borgella collections , then the Devillez , in Brussels ; Jean Jadot ( collector ‘s stamp on the cardboard support , Lugt 4009 ) .
Exhibition:
Reflections of Bibliophilia in Belgium , Royal Albert I Library , Brussels , March 1973 , n °97.
The immense admiration he had for his friend David , combined with his passion for the arts , led Pierre Didot to publish a new folio collection of classical and modern masterpieces of literature , accompanied by engravings from the new academic school . Three works were then planned and begun at the same time , devoted to Virgil , Horace and Racine .
For the Virgil , David personally followed all the stages of the project and directed the execution of the drawings and engravings . This first work in the collection was published in 1798 , adorned with 23 plates . David was the author of several of his drawings , but asked that his name not appear . In 1790 , he entrusted the other plates to his two most brilliant pupils , both of whom were then in Rome , Gérard and Girodet . In a letter from Girodet to David , sent from Rome on January 18 , 1791 , we can read about the progress of their work ” … I do n’t know if you have already received 4 compositions and our two portraits . Let us know as soon as possible your intentions on the changes you deem necessary . As soon as we receive your reply , we will set to work with zeal and promptness … “
Firmin Didot , Pierre ‘s brother , was in charge of printing the engraving , as well as casting the type , and it was accepted that the work , which was an immediate success , was one of the most beautiful achievements of that time . To thank him , his brother gave him a unique copy on vellum , accompanied by all the original drawings . The whole was not separated until after the Firmin Didot sale .
On our sheet , Orpheus , naked , his shoulders covered with a flowing cloak , has dropped his lyre to hold back Eurydice , who is moving away ” like smoke melting into the air “. Gérard illustrates here lines 499 and 500 , Book IV , of Virgil ‘s Georgics , whose engraving , executed by François Beisson ( 1759 – 1820 ) , bears , under the square line , the following text :
Dixit , et ex oculis cecito , ceu fumus in auras Commixtus tenuis , fugit diversa
Executed by a virtuoso and meticulous hand , in a particularly elaborate technique , mixing pen , gouache and watercolor , our sheet in the best neo – classical style , sensitive in the study of drapery and the nude , announces the romanticism that will dominate the decades to come .