Hermione Rejecting Orestes
Medium
Pen and black ink and black chalk, with stumping, and brush and brown and gray wash, heightened with white gouache, on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
26.3 × 32.3 cm (10 3/8 × 12 3/4 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
105468
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Girodet was one of the star pupils of Jacques Louis David. As a young man, he supported himself by making drawings as book illustrations. For the deluxe three-volume edition of the works of Jean Racine, published in 1801, Girodet provided drawings for Phaedra and Andromaque. This sheet is a preparatory work for the latter; it is the scene in which Hermione spurns Orestes after he has killed Pyrrhus at her request.