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(3) Jean-Germain [Germain-Jean] Drouais
(b Paris, 24 Nov 1763; d Rome, 13 Feb 1788). Son of (2) François-Hubert Drouais. He trained first with his father and in 1778 enrolled at the Académie Royale, becoming a pupil of Nicolas-Guy Brenet. Around 1781 he entered Jacques-Louis David’s studio as one of his first pupils. The following year, though not officially entered for the competition, he painted that year’s Prix de Rome subject, the Return of the Prodigal Son (Paris, St Roch), presumably as a trial for his own edification. The picture has a friezelike composition and reveals both the influence of Jean-François Peyron and David as well as debts to Poussin and Italian 17th-century sources. In 1783 Drouais reached the Prix de Rome final with the Resurrection of the Son of the Widow of Nain (Le Mans, Mus. Tessé) but was eliminated from the competition in extraordinary circumstances: impatient to know his master’s opinion, Drouais cut a section off the canvas and smuggled it out of the competition rooms. David acknowledged it to be the best thing his favourite pupil had yet done, but by his hasty action Drouais had disqualified himself. However, the following year he won the prize, and great acclaim, with the Woman of Canaan at the Feet of Christ (Paris, Louvre), an extremely accomplished piece influenced by Poussin’s work and David’s Belisarius (Lille, Mus. B.-A.).
Part of the Drouais family
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