Judith and Holofernes (Vernet)

He was then director of the Académie de France à Rome[1][2][3] It shows Judith just before beheading Holofernes.

[4] Two models sat for the work; Olympe Pélissier for Judith and Federico Ricci as Holofernes.

[5][5] It was first exhibited at the 1831 Paris salon, where it was noted by the art critics Étienne-Jean Delécluze, Charles Blanc and Heinrich Heine.

[2] It influenced the chapter "Sous la tente" in Gustave Flaubert's Salammbô, A Woman's Vengeance in Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly's Les Diaboliques and Friedrich Hebbel's play Judith.

A copy of the work by a painter called "Rouede" or "Rouche", who eventually became a pupil of Vernet, was rediscovered in the 1990s around dustbins by an inhabitant of Toulouse.