Alexandre Cabanel (; 28 September 1823 – 23 January 1889) was a French painter. He painted historical, classical and religious subjects in the academic style. He was also well known as a portrait painter. According to ''Diccionario Enciclopedico Salvat'', Cabanel is the best representative of ''

L'art pompier ''L'art pompier'' (literally 'fireman art') or ''style pompier'' is a derisive late-19th century French term for large 'official' academic art paintings of the time, especially historical or allegorical ones. The term derives from the helmets wi ...

'', and was

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

's preferred painter.

Biography

Cabanel entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris at the age of seventeen, and studied with

François-Édouard Picot François-Édouard Picot (; 10 October 1786 in Paris – 15 March 1868 in Paris) was a French painter during the July Monarchy, painting mythological, religious and historical subjects. Life Born in Paris, Picot won the Prix de Rome painti ...

. He exhibited at the Paris Salon for the first time in 1844, and won the

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

scholarship in 1845 at the age of 22. Cabanel was elected a member of the Institute in 1863. He was appointed professor at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

in 1864 and taught there until his death. He was closely connected to the Paris Salon: "He was elected regularly to the Salon jury and his pupils could be counted by the hundred at the Salons. Through them, Cabanel did more than any other artist of his generation to form the character of ''belle époque'' French painting". His refusal together with

William-Adolphe Bouguereau William-Adolphe Bouguereau (; 30 November 1825 – 19 August 1905) was a French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female ...

to allow the impressionist painter

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Bo ...

and many other painters to exhibit their work in the Salon of 1863 led to the establishment of the

Salon des Refusés The Salon des Refusés, French for "exhibition of rejects" (), is generally known as an exhibition of works rejected by the jury of the official Paris Salon, but the term is most famously used to refer to the Salon des Refusés of 1863. Today, b ...

by the French government. Cabanel won the Grande Médaille d'Honneur at the Salons of 1865, 1867, and 1878. A successful

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

painter, his 1863 painting ''

The Birth of Venus ''The Birth of Venus'' ( it, Nascita di Venere ) is a painting by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli, probably executed in the mid 1480s. It depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the sea ...

'' is one of the best-known examples of 19th-century academic painting. The picture was bought by the emperor

; there is also a smaller replica (painted in 1875 for a banker, John Wolf) at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. It was given to them by Wolf in 1893. The composition embodies ideals of

Academic art Academic art, or academicism or academism, is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie ...

: mythological subject, graceful modeling, silky brushwork, and perfected form. This style was perennially popular with collectors, even as it was challenged by artists seeking a more personal interpretation of truth to nature, such as Courbet.

Pupils

Alexandre Cabanel - Self Portrait (1847)

L atelier de Cabanel a l ecole des Beaux Arts

His pupils included: *

Rodolfo Amoedo Rodolfo Amoedo (11 December 1857 – 31 May 1941) was a Brazilian painter, designer and decorator. Biography His interest in art and decoration began when a family friend (who was a lyricist) invited him to do work on the now defunct Teatro Sã ...

* Joseph Aubert *

Henry Bacon Henry Bacon (November 28, 1866February 16, 1924) was an American Beaux-Arts architect who is best remembered for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. (built 1915–1922), which was his final project. Education and early career Henr ...

* George Randolph Barse *

Alexandre Jean-Baptiste Brun Alexandre Jean-Baptiste Brun (Marseille, 3 November 1853, Marseille; 5 November 1941) was a French painter, a pupil of Alexandre Cabanel, Carolus-Duran and Félix Bracquemond. He is especially known for his many marine paintings and a collectio ...

* Jean-Eugène Buland *

Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (also known as Benjamin-Constant), born Jean-Joseph Constant (10 June 1845 – 26 May 1902), was a French painter and etcher best known for his Oriental subjects and portraits. Biography Benjamin-Constant was bor ...

Vlaho Bukovac Vlaho Bukovac (french: Blaise Bukovac; it, Biagio Faggioni; 4 July 1855 – 23 April 1922) was a Croatian painter and academic. His life and work were eclectic, for the artist pursued his career in a variety of locales and his style changed gre ...

* Gaston Bussière * Louis Capdevielle * Eugène Carrière * Eugène Chigot *

Jacqueline Comerre-Paton Jacqueline Comerre, née Paton (1 May 1859 – 1955) was a French painter and sculptor, and the wife of the painter Léon-François Comerre (1850-1916). Comerre-Paton was born in Paris. Her mother was Émilie-Thérèse Paton (1820 - 1887), kn ...

Fernand Cormon Fernand Cormon (24 December 1845 – 20 March 1924) was a French painter born in Paris. He became a pupil of Alexandre Cabanel, Eugène Fromentin, and Jean-François Portaels, and one of the leading historical painters of modern France. Biogra ...

* Pierre Auguste Cot *

Kenyon Cox Kenyon Cox (October 27, 1856 – March 17, 1919) was an American painter, illustrator, muralist, writer, and teacher. Cox was an influential and important early instructor at the Art Students League of New York. He was the designer of the League ...

* Édouard Debat-Ponsan * * Louis Deschamps (painter) *

Émile Friant Émile Friant (16 April 1863 – 9 June 1932) was a French artist. Friant was born in the commune of Dieuze. He would later be forced to flee to Nancy by the encroachment of the Kingdom of Prussia's soldiers. He exhibited paintings througho ...

* François Guiguet *

Jules Bastien-Lepage Jules Bastien-Lepage (1 November 1848 – 10 December 1884) was a French painter closely associated with the beginning of naturalism, an artistic style that emerged from the later phase of the Realist movement. His most famous work is his lan ...

* François Flameng *

Charles Fouqueray Charles Dominique Fouqueray (Le Mans, 23 April 1869 – 28 March 1956) was a French painter.Nadine André-Pallois, ''Les Peintres français et indochinois'', 1997, p. 108. La première chose que l'on remarque lorsque l'on étudie les travaux de C ...

* Frank Fowler *

Henri Gervex Henri Gervex (Paris 10 December 1852 – 7 June 1929 Paris) was a French painter who studied painting under Alexandre Cabanel, Pierre-Nicolas Brisset, and Eugène Fromentin. Biography Early years He was the son of Joséphine Peltier and Félix ...

* Charles Lucien Léandre * Max Leenhardt * Henri Le Sidaner *

Aristide Maillol Aristide Joseph Bonaventure Maillol (; December 8, 1861 – September 27, 1944) was a French Sculpture, sculptor, Painting, painter, and printmaking, printmaker.Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette . "Maillol, Aristide". ''Grove Art Online. Oxford ...

* * João Marques de Oliveira * Jan Monchablon * Georges Moreau de Tours * * Henri Pinta *

Henri Regnault Alexandre Georges Henri Regnault (31 October 1843 – 19 January 1871) was a French painter. Biography Regnault was born in Paris, the son of Henri Victor Regnault. On leaving school he successively entered the studios of Antoine Montfort, Lou ...

* Iakovos Rizos *

Louis Royer Louis Royer (1793–1868), also Lodewyk Royer, was a Flemish sculptor who worked in the Netherlands where he received many commissions from the royal family and for public statues. Life Apprenticeship He was born in Mechelen where he first studie ...

* Jean-Jacques Scherrer * António Silva Porto * Edward Stott *

Joseph-Noël Sylvestre Joseph-Noël Sylvestre (1847–1926) was a French artist, notable for his studies of classic scenes from antiquity.Solomon Joseph Solomon * Paul Tavernier *

José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior (8 May 1850 – 13 November 1899), commonly known as Almeida Júnior, was a Brazilian artist and designer; one of the first there to paint in the Realistic tradition of Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet. ...

* Étienne Terrus *

Adolphe Willette Adolphe Léon Willette (30 July 1857, Châlons-sur-Marne4 February 1926, Paris) was a French painter, illustrator, caricaturist, and lithographer, as well as an architect of the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret. Willette ran as an " anti-semiti ...

Selected works

Alexandre Cabanel - The Birth of Venus - Google Art Project 2

* ''The Fallen Angel'' (''L'ange déchu'', 1847),

Musée Fabre The Musée Fabre is a museum in the southern French city of Montpellier, capital of the Hérault ''département''. The museum was founded by François-Xavier Fabre, a Montpellier painter, in 1825. Beginning in 2003, the museum underwent a 61.2 mi ...

, Montpellier * ''Aglaé and

Boniface Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations o ...

'' (''Aglaé et Boniface'', 1857), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio USA * ''

'' (''La naissance de Vénus'', 1863), Musée d'Orsay,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

* ''Napoleon III'' (1865), Musée national du château de Compiègne, Écouen, France * ''The Death of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta'' (''La mort de Francesca de Rimini et de Paolo Malatesta'', 1870), Musée d'Orsay,

* ''Portrait de la comtesse de Keller'' (1873), Musée d'Orsay,

* ''Thamar'' (1875) * ''

Phèdre ''Phèdre'' (; originally ''Phèdre et Hippolyte'') is a French dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by Jean Racine, first performed in 1677 at the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris. Composition and premiere Wit ...

'' (1880),

, Montpellier * ''Ruth glanant dans les champs de Booz'' (1886), Musée Garinet,

Châlons-en-Champagne Châlons-en-Champagne () is a city in the Grand Est region of France. It is the capital of the department of Marne, despite being only a quarter the size of the city of Reims. Formerly called Châlons-sur-Marne, the city was officially renam ...

* ''Portrait de Mary Victoria Leiter'' (1887),

Kedleston Hall Kedleston Hall is a neo-classical manor house, and seat of the Curzon family, located in Kedleston, Derbyshire, approximately 4 miles (6 km) north-west of Derby. The medieval village of Kedleston was moved in 1759 by Nathaniel Curzon to mak ...

, England,''Mary Leiter'' (1887), Derbyshire, England, Kedleston Hall; National Trust for Places of Historic Interest, U. K. * '' Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners'' (''Cléopâtre essayant des poisons sur des condamnés à mort'', 1887),

Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (Dutch: ''Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen'', ''KMSKA'') is a museum in Antwerp, Belgium, founded in 1810, that houses a collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the fourteenth t ...

Gallery

File:Fallen Angel (Alexandre Cabanel).jpg, ''The Fallen Angel'' (1847) File:Alexandre Cabanel - Albayde.jpg, '' Albaydé'' (1848) File:Alexandre Cabanel - Death of Moses.jpeg, ''The Death of Moses'' (1850) File:Nymphe et Saty (Alexandre Cabanel) 1860.JPG, ''Nymph abducted by a faun'' (1860) File:Alexandre Cabanel 002.jpg,

(c. 1865) File:Expulsion of Adam and Eve (Alexandre Cabanel).jpg, ''The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Paradise'' (1867) File:Inf. 06 Alexandre Cabanel, Morte di Francesca da Rimini e di Paolo Malatesta, 1870.jpg, ''The death of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta'' (1870) File:Cornelia Lyman Warren.png, Portrait of Cornelia Lyman Warren (1871) File:Alexandre Cabanel - Portrait Of Countess E A Vorontsova Dashkova.jpg, ''Portrait of Countess Elizabeth Vorontsova-Dashkova'' (1873) File:Alexandre Cabanel - Pandora - Walters 3799.jpg, ''Pandora'' (1873),

The Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th century. The museum's collection was amassed ...

File:Alexandre Cabanel - Echo.jpg, ''

Echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

'' (1874) File:Alexandre cabanel, thamar, 1875, 01.JPG, ''Thamar'' (1875) File:Alexandre Cabanel - Harmonie.jpg, ''

Harmonie is a German word that, in the context of the history of music, designates an ensemble of wind instruments (usually about five to eight players) employed by an aristocratic patron, particularly during the Classical era of the 18th century. The Harm ...

'' (1877) File:Alexandre Cabanel - The Daughter of Jephthah (1879, Oil on canvas).JPG, ''The daughter of

Jephthah Jephthah (pronounced ; he, יִפְתָּח, ''Yīftāḥ''), appears in the Book of Judges as a judge who presided over Israel for a period of six years (). According to Judges, he lived in Gilead. His father's name is also given as Gilead, ...

'' (1879) File:Alexandre Cabanel Phèdre.jpg, '' Phaedra'' (1880) File:Alexandre Cabanel, Ophelia.JPG, ''

Ophelia Ophelia () is a character in William Shakespeare's drama '' Hamlet'' (1599–1601). She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet, who, due to Hamlet's actions, ends u ...

'' (1883) File:Alexandre Cabanel - Cléopatre essayant des poisons sur des condamnés à mort.jpg, '' Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners'' (1887)

References

External links

Alexandre Cabanel at Artcyclopedia

Alexandre Cabanel at the Art Renewal Center

Alexandre Cabanel at The Art in Pixels

Alexandre Cabanel at alexandrecabanel.com
* https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/110000264 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cabanel, Alexandre 1823 births 1889 deaths 19th-century French painters French male painters French Roman Catholics Artists from Montpellier French romantic painters French neoclassical painters Prix de Rome for painting Academic art École des Beaux-Arts faculty Members of the Académie des beaux-arts Members of the Royal Academy of Belgium 19th-century French male artists