Getty Museum
Alexander Ceding Campaspe to Apelles
Creator
Jérôme-Martin LangloisFrench Artist · 1778–1838
All works by this person →Jérôme-Martin Langlois's father was a miniature painter, yet he opposed his son taking up the artist's profession. Langlois persisted, however, and trained with Jacques-Louis David, France's leading painter. David's Neoclassical style strongly influenced Langlois, whose historical and mythological paintings were also characterized by severe settings and cool, polished rendering of form. Langlois u
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1819
- Medium
- Black and white chalk, gray washes, heightened with white gouache
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
In a famous, perhaps apocryphal story meant to illustrate the great ruler's generosity, the court painter Apelles fell in love with Alexander the Great's favorite concubine Campaspe while sketching her. As a mark of appreciation for the painter's work, Alexander gave her to him as a present. In this scene Apelles responds to his master with enthusiasm and gratitude, while Campaspe modestly clutches her drapery and gazes at the floor. Jérôme-Martin Langlois made this highly polished drawing in preparation for a painting that achieved great success at the Paris Salon of 1819. Using nearly invisible strokes, he expressed the varied textures of leopard skin and marble walls under a clear, cool light. As with many Neoclassical French painters, Langlois chose a classical subject and an austere setting as a moral lesson for his own time.
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