Girodet is remembered for his precise and clear style and for his paintings of members of the Napoleonic family. Girodet was born at Montargis. Both of his parents died when he was a young adult. The two men remained close throughout their lives and Girodet took the surname Trioson in At the age of 22 he successfully competed for the Prix de Rome with a painting of the Story of Joseph and his Brethren.
Once he returned to France, Girodet painted many portraits, including some of members of the Bonaparte family. In his forties his powers began to fail, and his habit of working at night and other excesses weakened his constitution.
In , the year in which he produced his portraits of Cathelineau and Bonchamps , Girodet died on December 9 in Paris. Girodet produced a vast quantity of illustrations, amongst which may be cited those for the Didot editions of the works of Virgil and Racine — Fifty-four of his designs for the works of the ancient Greek poet Anacreon were engraved by M. Girodet used much of his time on literary composition. Delecluze, in his Louis David et son temps , has also a brief life of Girodet.
The exhibition assembled more than seminal works about 60 paintings and 40 drawings that demonstrated the artist's range as a painter as well as a draftsman.
Girodet was trained in the neoclassical style of his teacher, Jacques-Louis David , seen in his treatment of the male nude body and his reference to models from the Renaissance and Classical antiquity. However, he also deviated from this style in several ways. The peculiarities which mark Girodet's position as the herald of the romantic movement are already evident in his Sleep of Endymion , also called Effet de lune or "effect of the Moon".
