GUERIN, PIERRE-NARCISSE, BARON, a distinguished French painter, born at Paris in 1774, was the pupil of J. B. Regnault. His works are the perfection of manner in imitation of the antique; they display notwithstanding great skill and perseverance. By antique manner in painting is meant what may be termed a literal translation into colour of the common characteristic ideal forms of Greek sculpture and baubrilievi, without giving them life or motion • such pictures are evidently paint, and sometimes have the effect of a of painted statue., in which each figure is independent of its neighbour. The works of Gnerin may be justly censured for this defect, even more so than those of David ; but it is perhaps made more obvious in the works of Guerin, as his subjects are mostly antique and in antique costume. The following are his principal works :—The first which attracted general attention was, 'Marcus Sextus, having escaped the proscriptions of Sulla, returns, and finds his daughter weeping by the side of her dead mother,' exhibited in 1798; in 1802 he exhibited an ' Offering to dEsculapius,' and ' Hippolytus, accused by Phaedra, brought before Theseus;' in 1808, 'Bonaparte pardoning those who had revolted at Cairo; in 1810, 'Pyrrhus and Andromache,' and Cephalus and Aurora;' in 1817, ' Dido listening to the story of "Enemy" "Egisthus urging Clytemnestra to murder and 'St. Genevieve.' All these works havo been engraved ; the Ceplialus
and Aurora' by Forster: this subject is suited to Guerin's style, and it is one of the most beautiful of his works; it is in the Somariva collection. ' JEneas recounting the fate of Troy to Dido,' likewise engraved by Forster, is a gorgeous and elaborate work, especially in costume and accessories; but it wants chiaroscuro, and has the defect already noticed in the highest degree. It is now in the Louvre, along with several other of his best works. The 'Revolt6s du Cairo' is at Versailles.
Guerin was appointed a professor in the Ecole Royal des Beaux-Arts in 1814, and he was some years director of the French Academy at Rome: he was created baron after his return from Rome in 1829. He died at Rome, July 16th 1833. He was member of the Institute and many foreign academies, and chevalier of the Legion d'Houneur and of the order of St. Michel.