(20 June 1833 - 8 September 1922) was a French painter. He was born in Bayonne, but from 1846 to 1853 he lived in Madrid, where his father owned a bookshop. While tending his father's shop, he copied engravings of works by the Old Masters, developing a passion for drawing. In Madrid he received his artistic training under Madrazo. He later worked in Paris, where he became known as a leading portraitist, never without a commission. His many portraits show the influence of Velezquez, Jusepe de Ribera and other Spanish masters, as well as Titian and Van Dyke, whose works he studied in the Prado. Following the period in Spain Bonnat worked the ateliers of the history painters Paul Delaroche and Leon Cogniet (1854) in Paris. Despite repeated attempts, he failed to win the prix de Rome, finally receiving only a second prize. However, a scholarship from his native Bayonne allowed him to spend three years in Rome (1858 - 60) independently. During his stay in Rome, he became friends with Edgar Degas, Gustave Moreau, Jean-Jacques Henner and the sculptor Henri Chapu. He won a medal of honor in Paris in 1869, going on to become one of the leading artists of his day. Bonnat went on to win the Grand Officer of the Legion d'honneur and became a professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1882. Bonnat was quite popular with American students in Paris. In addition to his native French, he spoke Spanish and Italian and knew English well, to the relief of many monolingual Americans. In May 1905 he succeeded Paul Dubois as director of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Bonnat "was a liberal teacher who stressed simplicity in art above high academic finish, as well as overall effect rather than detail," explains Julius Kaplan (see References). Bonnat's emphasis on overall effect on the one hand, and rigorous drawing on the other, put him in a middle position with respect to the Impressionists and academic painters like his friend Jean-Leon Gerôme.   Related Paintings of Leon Joseph Florentin Bonnat :. | The Trial of the Rebels | Reinsman before race | After the Dance (mk41) | the third of may 1808 | King David Handing the Letter to Uriah |
Related Artists:
MOEYAERT, Claes Cornelisz.
Dutch painter (b. 1590/91, Durgerdam, d. 1655, Durgerdam) Dutch painter, etcher and draughtsman. He was the son of an aristocratic Catholic Amsterdam merchant and moved to the city with his family in 1605. He was the most prolific of the history painters now called the PRE-REMBRANDTISTS, whose representations of biblical and mythological narratives, as well as of more recent secular history, give particular emphasis to dramatic and psychological effects. After working initially as a draughtsman and etcher, Moeyaert soon made his name as a painter. Landscapes with animals feature prominently in both his etchings and his paintings. At first he followed the lead of Adam Elsheimer, then of fellow Pre-Rembrandtists Pieter Lastman and Jan and Jacob Pynas, eventually, in the mid-1630s,
Etienne Moreau-Nelaton
Adolphe Etienne Auguste Moreau-Nelaton (2 December 1859, Paris- 25 April 1927, Paris) was a French painter, art collector and art historian. His large collection is today held in its entirety by National French museums. Moreau-Nelaton's family's art collecting began with his grandfather Adolphe Moreau (1800-59). As a stockbroker he possessed ample capital with which to buy the work of artists with whom he was personally acquainted, including Eugene Delacroix and Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps. Moreau-Nelaton's father, who was also named Adolphe Moureau (1827-82), was a high government official and led the railroad company Chemins de fer de l'Est. In 1856 he married the ceramic artist Camille Nelaton (1840-97), with whom he further expanded the family's collection.
Eugene Alexis Girardet
French Painter, 1853-1907 painted Prayer in the Desert in