About this artwork

I usually spend a lot of time working on my photographs, so i am intimately familiar with most of their flaws. This image, The funeral of Atala, is one of the few that got me all excited. The novel "Atala or the love of two savages in the wilderness" by Chateaubriand inspired many artists and, among others, one of my personal favorites, Girodet. Set in primitive America of the 17th century, Atala is the tragic story of a young Christian metisse who falls madly in love with Chactas, an 'Indian' whom she has saved from a death sentence. Taken in by a missionary, Father Aubry, after a long 'walkabout', the young lovers however cannot live out their passsion. Trapped by the vow made to her mother to dedicate herself to religion, Atala chooses suicide in order to avoid succumbing to her passion, despite Chactas' willingness to convert so as to be able to marry her.

1m long side