Selected works

Revisiting classical antiquity with grace and virtuosity, this terracotta group is characteristic of the art of Jean-Guillaume Moitte.

The theme is inspired by the Suicide of Galatea, one of the most famous antiquities of the Ludovisi collection in Rome. The male character stands, his right arm raised while the young woman, exhausted, is slumped at his feet. By his virtuous study of the woman at the end of her strength, the entanglement of the bodies and the musculature of the man, Moitte rivals the artists of Antiquity. The nervousness with which the material is treated, the harmony of the proportions and the refinement of the fallen drapes are all characteristics of his art, and are found in the terracotta we present, The Inebriation.

This iconography particularly excites Moitte, who also offers a variation in marble, by which he leaves the dramatic register to develop an epicurean theme. Moitte also participates in this other neoclassicism that is spreading in Europe: alongside a severe style praised by Winckelmann or Canova, Moitte gives life to kind and light iconographies, to a world populated by fauns, bacchantes and nymphs who abandon themselves to pleasures.

In this work, Moitte not only passes drama to lightness, but also reverses the iconography. The male character sits while the young woman stands, her left arm raised, in an attitude very close to the bacchant of our terracotta. Undoubtedly unconvinced by this slightly unbalancedcomposition, Moitte returns, in our Nymph and bacchant, the original central motif: the woman is sitting on the ground, in a complete abandonment.

Fascinated by Antiquity, Moitte accumulates the quotes. Thus, the back of the bacchant is inspired by the famous Belvédère torso, which Moitte was able to study during his stay in Rome as an academic student. The powerful musculature unfolds on both sides of a curve, at once dynamic and naturalistic, slenderer than in the famous ancient torso.

The art of Jean-Guillaume Moitte is a virtuoso mix of ancient references and elegant naturalism, whether in representations of Roman history or in light and graceful scenes.