Portrait of Jean-Baptiste-François de Bourgeon

Girodet's portrait of Jean-Baptiste-François de Bourgeon from 1800 demonstrates his mastery of the Davidian portrait tradition applied to the professional and official classes of post-Revolutionary France. Girodet, who had been David's most talented pupil before developing a highly personal approach to Romantic mythology and history painting, maintained throughout his career a portrait practice that provided steady income alongside his ambitious exhibition paintings. His portraits of the Consulate and Empire period combined the austere dignity of neoclassical convention with a penetrating psychological observation that gave his sitters an unusual quality of interior presence. The 1800 date places this in the period of the Consulate when the social structures of Revolutionary France were being reconsolidated under Napoleon.

Girodet's portrait technique combines David's precision of drawing with a softer, more atmospheric handling of light that distinguishes his work from his master's more sculptural approach. The flesh is modeled with careful attention to warm and cool transitions, while the costume receives meticulous treatment appropriate to the sitter's social position.