Jean Germain Drouais

He adopted the classical style of his master, giving his days to study painting and spending a great part of every night in designing.

After inspecting the works of his fellow-competitors, however, he lost hope and destroyed his own canvas, but was consoled by the assurance of his master David that he had not done badly, and would have won the prize.

The next year he was triumphantly successful, the Woman of Canaan at the Feet of Christ, with which he gained the prize, being compared by competent critics with the works of Poussin.

He was carried shoulder high by his fellow-students through the streets to his mother's house, and a place was afterward found for his picture in the Louvre.

Goethe, who was at Rome at the time it was finished, has recorded the deep impression made by his Marius at Minturnae, which he characterizes as in some respects superior to the work of David, his master.