Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (, 4 April 1758 – 16 February 16, 1823) was a French Romantic

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 ...

and draughtsman best known for his allegorical paintings and portraits such as '' Madame Georges Anthony and Her Two Sons'' (1796). He painted a portrait of each of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

's two wives. He was an early influence on

Théodore Géricault Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (; 26 September 1791 – 26 January 1824) was a French painter and lithographer, whose best-known painting is '' The Raft of the Medusa''. Despite his short life, he was one of the pioneers of the Romanti ...

and Constance Mayer, who may have influenced him as well, due to their intimate working relationship.

Biography

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon was born in

Cluny Cluny () is a commune in the eastern French department of Saône-et-Loire, in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is northwest of Mâcon. The town grew up around the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in ...

Saône-et-Loire Saône-et-Loire (; Arpitan: ''Sona-et-Lêre'') is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the rivers Saône and Loire, between which it lies, in the country's central-eastern part. Saône-et-Loire is B ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. He received his artistic training in the

French provinces Under the Ancien Régime, the Kingdom of France was subdivided in multiple different ways (judicial, military, ecclesiastical, etc.) into several administrative units, until the National Constituent Assembly adopted a more uniform division into d ...

and went to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

when he was twenty-six years old to continue his education. On his return to

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 ...

, he found work decorating some private mansions, often allegorical works such as '' The Soul Breaking the Links Holding it to the Earth'' and '' The Dream of Happiness''. His work for wealthy Parisians led him to be held in high esteem at

's court. His painting of Josephine portrays her not as an Empress, but as an attractive woman, which led some to think that he might have been in love with her. After the divorce of Napoleon and Josephine, he was also employed by Napoleon's second wife Marie-Louise. Prud'hon was at times clearly influenced by

Neo-classicism Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...

, at other times by

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

. He was appreciated by other artists and writers, including

Stendhal Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, , ), was a French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' ('' The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de Parme'' ('' T ...

, Delacroix,

Millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe Paniceae. Millets are important crops in the Semi-arid climate, ...

and

Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics, an ...

, for his

chiaroscuro In art, chiaroscuro ( , ; ) is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to ach ...

and convincing realism. He painted ''Crucifixion'' (1822) for St. Etienne's

Cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

; it now hangs in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

. The young

had painted copies of work by Prud'hon, whose "thunderously tragic pictures" include his masterpiece, ''Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime'', where oppressive darkness and the compositional base of a naked, sprawled corpse obviously anticipate Géricault's painting '' The Raft of the Medusa''.Gayford, Martin
"Distinctive power".
''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'', November 1, 1997. Retrieved from findarticles.com on January 6, 2008.

Gallery

File:Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Male Nude Study, NGA 43605.jpg, ''Male Nude Study'',

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

File:Prud'hon - Louise Antoinette Scholastique Guéheneuc (1782-1856).jpg, Louise Antoinette Lannes, Duchess of Montebello File:Saint-Just-French anon-MBA Lyon 1955-2-IMG 0450.jpg, Portrait of Louis de Saint-Just, 1793 File:1795, Prud'hon, Pierre-Paul, Nicolas Perchet.jpg, ''Nicolas Perchet'', 1795,

Princeton University Art Museum The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 117,000 work ...

File:Female Nude.jpg, ''Female Nude'', 1800 Image:Pierre-Paul Prud'hon 001.jpg, ''Portrait of

Joséphine de Beauharnais Joséphine Bonaparte (, born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie; 23 June 1763 – 29 May 1814) was the first wife of Emperor Napoleon I and as such Empress of the French from 18 May 1804 until their marriage was annulled on 10 Janua ...

'', at the

, 1805 File:Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord - Pierre-Paul Prud'hon.jpg, ''Portrait of

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (; ; 2 February 1754 – 17 May 1838), 1st Prince of Benevento, then Prince of Talleyrand, was a French secularization, secularized clergyman, statesman, and leading diplomat. After studying theology, he b ...

'', 1817 File:Prud'hon 1819 Amour tenant les rames.jpg, ''Study for The Dream of Happiness (with Constance Mayer)'', 1819

References

External links

''Europe in the age of enlightenment and revolution''
a catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Prud'hon (see index)

* ttps://www.gdcinteriors.com/prudhon/ ''Pierre-Paul Prud’hon: Napoleon’s Draughtsman'' at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London {{DEFAULTSORT:Prudhon, Pierre Paul 1758 births 1823 deaths People from Saône-et-Loire 18th-century French painters French male painters 19th-century French painters French draughtsmen French romantic painters Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 19th-century French male artists 18th-century French male artists

Biography

Gallery

References

Further reading

General studies

Reference works

External links