Louis Joseph César Ducornet (10 January 1806,

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

– 27 April 1856,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was a French

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

who painted with his foot. He is known primarily for biblical and historical scenes, as well as

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

Biography

Ducornet was born to poor parents in Lille on January 10, 1806. His father, Alexandre, was a shoemaker. He had a birth defect, now known as

phocomelia Phocomelia is a congenital condition that involves malformations of human arms and legs which result in a flipper-like appendage. A prominent cause of phocomelia is the mother being prescribed the use of the drug thalidomide during pregnancy; ho ...

. Having neither arms nor thighs, and only four toes to his right foot, he was unable to walk and had to be carried by his father. However, while still a child, he would pick up pieces of coal from the floor with his toes and draw rough sketches on the wall. The natural talent he exhibited led to his receiving some art instruction. With the help of the municipality of Lille, he was sent to Paris in 1824, where he studied under

Guillaume Guillon-Lethière Guillaume Guillon-Lethière (; 10 January 1760 – 22 April 1832) was a French people, French Neoclassicism, Neoclassical painter. Life Youth He was born in Sainte-Anne, Guadeloupe, out of wedlock, to Marie-Françoise Dupepaye, a free person ...

, François Louis Joseph Watteau and

François Gérard François Pascal Simon Gérard (, 4 May 1770 – 11 January 1837), titled as Baron Gérard in 1809, was a French painter. He was born in Rome, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador, and his mother was Italian. A ...

. During the reign of King

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...

he was awarded an annual pension, in the amount of 1,200 Francs, which was continued by King

Charles X Charles X may refer to: * Charles X of France (1757–1836) * Charles X Gustav (1622–1660), King of Sweden * Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon (1523–1590), recognized as Charles X of France but renounced the royal title See also * * King Charle ...

. Although his disability prevented him from entering the competition for 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 ...

, he was awarded several medals at the

Paris Salon The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

. He also participated in the

Brussels Salon The Brussels Salon (; ) was a periodic exhibition of works by living artists that was held in Brussels between 1811 and 1914. It was primarily aimed at painters, but sculptors, Drawing, draughtsmen, Engraving, engravers and architects were also ...

of 1836 and even took an occasional student; notably Auguste Allongé. He painted an eleven feet high depiction of

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cr ...

at the feet of Jesus after the

resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions involving the same person or deity returning to another body. The disappearance of a body is anothe ...

that was purchased by the French government. The critic

Maxime Du Camp Maxime Du Camp (8 February 1822 – 9 February 1894) was a French writer and photographer. Biography Born in Paris, Du Camp was the son of a successful surgeon. After finishing college, he indulged in his strong desire for travel, thanks to ...

was of the opinion that "his paintings painted with the feet were hardly worse than many paintings painted with the hand". From 1845, he had a studio on the , where he died in 1856, aged 50.

Works

Among his notable paintings are: *''Repentance'' (1828) *''The Parting of

Hector In Greek mythology, Hector (; , ) was a Trojan prince, a hero and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. He is a major character in Homer's ''Iliad'', where he leads the Trojans and their allies in the defense of Troy, killing c ...

and

Andromache In Greek mythology, Andromache (; , ) was the wife of Hector, daughter of Eetion, and sister to Podes. She was born and raised in the city of Cilician Thebe, over which her father ruled. The name means "man battler", "fighter of men" or "m ...

''. ( Lille Museum.) *''

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Administering Justice''. (Lille Museum.) *''Death of Mary Magdalen'' (1840) () *''The Holy Family Resting in Egypt'' (1841) *''Christ in the Sepulchre'' (1843) *''

Edith Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English word , meaning ''wealth'' or ''prosperity'', in combination with the Old English , meaning ''wiktionary:strife, strife'', and is in common usage in this form in English language, Englis ...

Finding the Body of Harold'' (1855)

Selected paintings

Lille canonniers ducornet negrier.JPG, General

Oscar de Négrier François Oscar de Négrier (; 2 October 1839 – 22 August 1913), known as Oscar de Négrier, was a French general of the Third Republic, winning fame in Algeria in the Sud-Oranais campaign (1881) and in Tonkin during the Sino-French War (Augus ...

Ducornet-Grisette.jpg, '' Grisette'' File:Ducornet-Mary.jpg,

in Ecstasy File:Ducornet-Holy.jpg, The

Holy Family The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on,Ainsworth, 122 but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de La ...

Resting in Egypt Ducornet-Melodia.jpg, Melodia

References

External links

1806 births 1856 deaths 19th-century French painters French male painters Artists from Lille Painters from Hauts-de-France French artists with disabilities French amputees People without hands Mouth and foot painting artists 19th-century French male artists {{France-painter-19thC-stub

Biography

Works

Selected paintings

References

Further reading

External links