Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (French, 1767-1824) La naissance de Vénus Charcoal and white chalk on beige paper 9-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches (23.5 x 18.4 cm) With inscription lower right: Girodet Trioson Property from a Dallas Collection PROVENANCE: [Probably] the artist's sale, Paris, April 11, 1825 and following days, lot 124 or 139; Vente Piasa, Paris, March 31, 2000, lot 99; Jean Bona (and sold, Christie's, Paris, March 27, 2019, lot 115); Acquired from the above. EXHIBITED: École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (and elsewhere), "Suite française: Dessins de la Collection Jean Bonna," December 1, 2006- February 25, 2007, no. 57. LITERATURE: Probably, P.-A. Coupin, Oeuvres posthumes de Girodet-Trioson, peintre d'histoire, vol. I, Paris-Brussels, 1829, p. Lxxxj; Musée du Louvre, Girodet 1767-1824, exh. cat., Paris, 2005-2007, p. 460, illustrated; École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts; Musée d'art et d'histoire, Suite française. Dessins de la collection Jean Bonna, Paris and Geneva, exh. cat., 2006-2007, pp. 238-41, no. 57, catalogue entry by H. Meyer; N. Strasser, Dessins Français du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle, Geneva, 2016, no. 96. Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson was deeply inspired by the long visual tradition of representing the birth of Venus, returning to the motif repeatedly in the first decade of the nineteenth century. As the critic and art historian Pierre-Alexandre Coupin observed in 1829, "Girodet had a great fertility of imagination: his work attests to this... he was extremely demanding of himself; thus, after having adopted a subject, he would turn it over in a thousand ways to seek the best solution. For example, he may have left perhaps ten different compositions of the La naissance de Vénus" (translated from the French; Coupin, pp. lxxxj–lxxxij, as quoted in Strasser, p. 219). The present sheet can be associated, though not conclusively, with descriptions recorded in Girodet's 1825 posthumous sale, in which Venus rises from sea foam attended by Cupids—one presenting a mirror—while Triton and Amphitrite occupy the surrounding space. Other versions modify this arrangement, introducing or omitting subsidiary figures and motifs. A drawing in the Jeffrey E. Horvitz Collection, Boston, presents a comparable composition with the attendant figures arranged differently, while a sheet in the Louvre shows the goddess half-length, emerging from the waves and absorbed in her reflection (Meyer, Suite française, pp. 238, 240). Across these works, the figure of Venus remains the central constant. She is conceived in a graceful contrapposto, her raised arm and lowered gaze directed toward a mirror. This gesture brings together two classical types—Venus Anadyomene (emerging from the sea) and Venus at her toilette—within a single image (Strasser, pp. 218–19). Girodet draws on established models while shifting the emphasis toward introspection and sensual presence, producing a figure that is at once idealized and self-aware. The handling of the medium is central to this effect. Charcoal is applied with varying intensity to articulate form, while stumping softens transitions and dissolves the surrounding space. White highlights, often worked to a high degree of opacity, create a diffuse luminosity that isolates the figure and heightens its presence. The result is an image constructed as much through light as through line, in which Venus appears to emerge gradually from shadow into illumination. This approach departs from the linear discipline associated with Neoclassicism and anticipates the more atmospheric and expressive qualities of Romanticism (Meyer, Suite française, p. 240). The luminous sensuality of the La naissance de Vénus sets Girodet apart from more conventional mythological painting of the period. He had already explored related ideas in works such as Danaë (1798), in which the princess of Argos, seduced by Zeus, adopts a similar pose—accompanied by a putto and gazing at her reflection while bathed in light (Meyer, Suite française, pp. 240–41). As part of a broader investigation of idealized female beauty, La naissance de Vénus should be understood not as a fixed composition, but as an evolving concept, through which Girodet engages classical sources while developing a more fluid and imaginative approach to form. HID12401132022 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

école Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (and elsewhere), "Suite française: Dessins de la Collection Jean Bonna," December 1, 2006- February 25, 2007, no. 57.

Artist's sale, Paris, April 11, 1825 and following days, lot 124 or 139; Vente Piasa, Paris, March 31, 2000, lot 99; Jean Bona (and sold, Christie's, Paris, March 27, 2019, lot 115); Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Sun-darkening in central area of sheet, with scattered foxing along edges. Original sheet is laid on secondary support and hinged to board in corners of verso, preventing full inspection of sheet verso. Framed under glass
Framed Dimensions 17 X 12.75 X 1.25 Inches