Anne-Louis GIRODET-TRIOSON (Montargis 1767 - Paris 1824) Aeolus unleashes the winds against the Trojan ships Black pencil. 25.8 x 35 cm Provenance : - Sale after the artist's death, Paris, April 11, 1825 (collection of drawings intended to illustrate the works of Virgil), acquired at this sale by his pupil and friend Antoine Pannetier. - Former Pannetier collection, until 1859. - Former La Bordes collection. - Sale "170 dessins de Girodet, Compositions pour l'Énéide et les Géorgiques de Virgile", Paris, Hôtel Drouot, April 15, 1867, no. 2. - Former Firmin-Didot collection. - Sale "146 dessins de Girodet pour l'Éneide", November 17, 1971, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, probably no. 6. - Anonymous sale, Artcurial, Paris, Hôtel Dassault, March 23, 2017, no. 74, reproduced. Bibliography: Angela Stief, "Die Aeneisillustrationen von Girodet-Trioson: künstlerische und literarische Rezeption von Vergils Epos in Frankreich um 1800", Frankfurt, 1986, p. 315, no. 2. Exhibition: Dessiner l'Énéide, Montargis, musée Girodet, 1997, p. 44, no. 2. Girodet worked on Virgil's works throughout his life. As early as 1791, he was commissioned by David to work with Gérard on the illustrations for Didot's edition of the Aeneid, published in 1798 (see: S. Bellenger, Girodet, exhibition catalog, 2005-2006, p. 437). In a February 1811 letter to his friend Marie-Philippe Coupin de la Couperie, Girodet explains that he had embarked on a suite of illustrations for the Éneide (see: P.A. Coupin, Œuvres posthumes de Girodet-Trioson, peintre d'histoire, suivies de sa correspondance ; précédées d'une notice historique, et mises en ordre, Paris, 1829, pp. 309-310). This suite appears to have been unfinished at his death in 1824, or at least unpublished. At an after-death sale in 1825, according to Madame Amélie-Julie Simons-Candeille, an Englishman tried to buy the suite of the Aeneid, but Girodet's friends and pupils countered his offer in order to defend his memory and keep the illustrations in France. The suite was finally bought for 10,000 Francs by Antoine Pannetier, his pupil and friend (see : S. Lemeux Fraitot, Inventaire après décès de Gros et de Girodet, p. 196). His pupils then took on the task of lithographing, under Monsieur Pannetier's direction, 72 of the 182 drawings Girodet had left behind. Our drawing translates verses 50-85 of Canto I of the Aeneid. Juno goes to the god Aeolus, appointed by Jupiter to keep the winds chained in dark caverns, and, cleverly flattering the docile Aeolus by promising him a nymph for a wife as a reward, she convinces him to set the winds free. In our drawing, Juno gives Aeolus the promised nymph, and the winds furiously escape from the cavern where they were imprisoned. In the distance, the frail skiffs try desperately to escape the storm that is already roaring.