Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson

This drawing is one of ten highly finished preparatory drawings which Girodet made for Pierre Didot's 1801 deluxe edition of Jean Baptiste Racine's "Oeuvres" (Paris, Pierre Didot l'aîné, 1801, 3 vols.). The artist designed five compositions for "Phèdre", and five for "Andromaque." "Phèdre," a dramatic tragedy in five parts, taken from Greek mythology and written in alexandrine verse, was first performed in 1677. The present sheet illustrates Act I, Scene 3 of "Phèdre", and was engraved by Raphael Urbain Massard (in vol. 2, pp. 422-423). In this scene, Phaedra, the wife of Theseus, confesses to her nurse Oenone her forbidden love for her stepson, Hippolytus.
Didot's three-volume edition of Racine's "Oeuvres" set a new standard for luxury in French book production, with full-page illustrations for the six plays included, each play being illustrated by the same artist for consistency. The Morgan preserves a copy of Didot's publication (of which only 250 examples were printed) in the Gordon Ray Collection (PML 140193-195), as well as three other preparatory drawings, two by Antoine-Denis Chaudet (1763-1810), one for "Esther" (Acc. No. 2002.12) and the other for "Athalie" (Acc. No. 2002.13), and one by François Gérard (1770-1837) for "Bajazet" (Acc. No. 2002.14). This composition was also engraved by Michel Olivier Le Bas in C.P. Landon, "Annales du Musée de l'école moderne des beaux-arts" (Paris, 1809, XVI bis, p. 67, pl. 41).