Guillaume Guillon-Lethière

Guillaume Guillon - Lethière (* January 10, 1760 in Sainte -Anne, Guadeloupe, † April 22, 1832 in Paris) was a French painter.

Life and work

Guillaume was born as the son of the French colonial officer's Pierre Guillon. At 14, he went to France and at age 17 he became a student of Gabriel François Doyen at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. In 1784 he won second place in the Prix de Rome for his painting Woman of Canaan at the foot of Christ. Two years later, he fought once again at this price, but did not win. Nevertheless, he received support for a trip to Rome, where he was able to develop his neoclassical style.

Guillaume remained several years in Rome, before he returned to Paris in 1791. He opened a painting studio in Paris in direct competition to the painter Jacques -Louis David. From 1807 to 1816 he was director of the Académie de France à Rome. In 1818 he was honored with membership in the Legion of Honor. In 1819 he became professor at the École des Beaux -Arts in Paris. Among his pupils was Isidore Pils.

Works (selection)

Joséphine de Beauharnais

The death of Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger, 1795, Ermitage Saint Petersburg

Philoctetes on Lemnos

The Fatherland is in danger

Miracle on the bridge of the Danube, November 14, 1805

Literature (selection )

• B. Foucart, G. Capy and G. Firent Laballe: Guillaume Guillon Lethière. Paris and Pointe -à- Pitre, 1991.
• Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby: Revolutionary Sons, White Fathers and Creole Difference: . Guillaume Guillon Lethière 's " Oath of the Ancestors " of 1822: Yale French Studies, 101 (2002): pp. 201-226.
• Oriol T.: Les Hommes célèbres de La Guadeloupe. Basse -Terre, 1935, pp. 39-47.