Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson was THE sexy rebel of post- Revolution France’s art world.

And just like that rebellious ex of yours, he was cute, insecure, and wrote bad poetry.

Girodet was born with enough family money and connections that he travelled to Paris for his education. He had an early penchant for drawing and his family attempted to steer him away from a career in art as he grew older, but to no avail. When he was 17, he officially joined the workshop of the infamous Jacques-Louis David. David was a propagandist painter who depicted Imperial Roman subjects to express political loyalty and emulate republican values favorably first during the French revolution and then under Napoleon. Eventually, Girodet got bored of intoxicating the masses and straight up copying David’s tired old paintings for rich people. It didn’t help that David was kind of a turd, often pitting his students against each other and making them feel bad about themselves.

Girodet went on to expand his work from the popular neo-classicism that was dominating at the time to paintings that had more eroticism and imagination in them. While most French artists were chasing perfect straight lines and revisiting the same ancient Greek and Roman subjects, Girodet pushed these rigid boundaries and found a lot of success. His work often depicted people who would not normally be painted, like a self-emancipated slave who became an advocate for black people in the French empire . Many also credit him for exploring homoerotic themes in his paintings and bringing a deep humanism and romantic beauty to his work.

As his career waxed and waned Girodet was continually plagued by insecurity, often becoming paranoid of his peers and painting in secret until the very last second. A highly public fight over a gorgeous but satirical portrait of a famous actress in 1799 would greatly damage his reputation and would haunt him for the rest of his life. Although he was talented, the portrait was so scathing, he kind of deserved it.

By his death in 1824, Girodet had long been declining in health, and had produced less and less as he aged. Despite that, at his funeral all his painting buddies mourned him whole-heartedly and bemoaned the loss of such an esteemed artist and example of French painterly greatness.