The Burial of Atala
painting by Girodet in the Louvre
The Burial of Atala or The Funeral of Atala (French: Atala au tombeau) is an 1808 oil-on-canvas painting by the French painter Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson. It depicts a scene from Francois-René de Chateaubriand's novel, Atala, written in 1801. Inspired by this tragic love story, Girodet captures its dramatic tone by combining both Neoclassical and Romantic elements while emphasizing the sensuality of Atala’s death.
First publicly displayed in the Salon of 1808, the painting was well received. It was then acquired by Louis XVIII in 1818. Today, it is held in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Context
Reacting against the secularism of the French Revolution, both Chateaubriand and Girodet contributed to the revival of Christianity, incorporating religious motifs and iconography into their works.
Chateaubriand’s Atala was part of a larger project, The Genius of Christianity (French: Le Génie du Christianisme), written as a defense of Christianity meant to inspire artists and to emphasize moral ideals. Atala tells the story of a Christian girl, Atala, who fell in love with a Natchez Indian, Chactas. However, this threatens her obligation to her vow of chastity.
The public source identifies “The Burial of Atala” as painting by Girodet in the Louvre. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Burial, Atala and painting.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q9401827. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1808, 1801 and 1818.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Burial of Atala” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.