Dessin d' Anne-Louis Girodet, l' Ange de Dieu et l' Ânesse de Balaam, 1780.

Drawing by Anne-Louis Girodet, the Angel of God stands in the way of Balaam's donkey (Numbers 22, 21-23). Pen and black ink, gray wash, on paper (D & CBlauw watermark). Very good state. Some foxing present in the upper part. Format 24 cm x 34 cm. Annotated, top left: invention of Girodet, drawn on June 29, 1780. Our drawing, illustrating a rather unknown biblical episode, is due to the already very alert hand of a Girodet then 13 years old. This would be his very first known drawing. Annotated on the back: (Girodet was almost a child) / drawing by Girodet Trioson / kept in his family / and taken from the collection / of Mr Pannetier / Liénard. The annotation on the back is certainly due to the hand of Edouard Liénard (1779-1848), a fellow student of Girodet in David's studio, whose descendants will donate to the BnF, in 1879, a sketchbook Romains de Girodet (BnF, RESERVE DC-48 (C) -4). As for the other character quoted in the note, Antoine -Claude Pannetier (1772-1859), friend and pupil of Girodet, he had the initiative and the responsibility for the edition of the Aeneid after the death of his friend. Provenance: from the collection of the Countess of X ... (born around 1930), member of a family of enlightened amateurs who regularly attended the distinguished sales of the Hôtel Drouot in the years 1880-1910.