The J. Paul Getty Museum

Dido Excoriates Aeneas, from Book IV of the "Aeneid"

Object Details

Title:

Dido Excoriates Aeneas, from Book IV of the "Aeneid"

Artist/Maker:

Jean-Michel Moreau le jeune (French, 1741 - 1814)

Culture:

French

Date:

1803

Medium:

Pen and brown ink and brown wash

Object Number:

99.GA.28

Dimensions:

22.2 × 15.6 cm (8 3/4 × 6 1/8 in.)

See more

See less

Object Description

After enduring an epic voyage, Aeneas was shipwrecked near Carthage on the coast of North Africa, where Queen Dido received him. Although the two fell in love, Aeneas could not remain with the queen. Jean-Michel Moreau le jeune illustrated the moment after Aeneas announced that he must continue on his journey. Lashing out in rage, Dido hurls abuse at him.

Moreau le jeune made this drawing as a highly finished model for an engraving by Jean-Batiste Simonet for the frontispiece of the second volume of a French translation of Virgil's Aeneid, published in Paris in 1804.

Provenance
Provenance
-

Private Collection (Europe)

1999

Thomas Le Claire, sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999.

Exhibitions
Exhibitions
Recent Additions to the Drawings Collection (August 3 to October 17, 1999)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), August 3 to October 17, 1999
Rome on the Grand Tour (January 8 to August 11, 2002)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), January 8 to August 11, 2002
A Revolutionary Age: Drawing in Europe, 1770-1820 (January 18 to May 1, 2005)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), January 18 to May 1, 2005
Gods and Heroes: European Drawings of Classical Mythology (November 19, 2013 to February 9, 2014)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), November 19, 2013 to February 9, 2014
Reading Between the Lines: Drawing Illustrations (June 4 to September 15, 2019)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), June 4 to September 15, 2019
Bibliography
Bibliography

Le Claire, Thomas. Master Drawings 1500-1900 (Hamburg: 1998), unpaginated, no. 26, ill.

Hendrix, Lee. "Shaping the Getty's Collection of Drawings." Master Drawings 38, no. 3 (Autumn 2000), p. 356.

Le Claire, Thomas. Master Drawings 1500-1900 (Hamburg: 2005), unpaginated, under no. 22, fig. 3.

Christie's, Paris. Dessins anciens et du XIXe siècle. April 10, 2013, p. 58, under lot 91.