Jules Joseph Lefebvre
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Jules Joseph Lefebvre (Tournan-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, 14 March 1836 – Paris, 24 February 1911) was a French figure painter, perhaps best-known for his painting La Vérité.
Entered the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts en 1852, and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet. Lefebvre won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1861. Between 1855 and 1898, he exhibited 72 portraits in the Paris Salon. In 1891, he became a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts
He was an instructor at the Académie Julian in Paris. He is chiefly important as an excellent and sympathetic teacher who numbered many Americans among his 1500 or more pupils. One of his famous students was the Scottish born landscape painter William Hart. Georges Rochegrosse and John Noble Barlow were also his pupils. He was long a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts.
His paintings are usually single figures of beautiful women.
Among his best portraits were those of M. L. Reynaud and the Prince Imperial (1874). Among his many decorations were a first-class medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1878 and the medal of honor in 1886. He was a Commander of the Legion of Honor and a member of the Institute.
Significant milestones
- (1853) Student at the École des Beaux-Arts
- (1859) Second place Prix de Rome
- (1861) His Death of Primam wins the Prix de Rome
- (1870) Académie Julian professor
- (1870) Légion d'Honneur, Officer, named Commander from 1898
- (1891) Member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts
Selected works
- (1861) The Death of Priam (Won the Prix de Rome)
- (1861) Diva Vittoria Colonna
- (1863) Boy Painting a Tragic Mask
- (1864) Roman Charity
- (1865) Portrait d'Antonio, modèle italien
- (1866) Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi
- (1868) Reclining Nude, Musée d'Orsay.
- (1869) Le Reveil de Diane
- (1869) Portrait of Alexandre Dumas
- (1870) La Vérité (The Truth)
- (1870s) Girl with a Mandolin
- (1870) Portrait du Prince Impérial
- (1872) Pandora
- (1872) La Cigale, National Gallery of Victoria)
- (1874) Odalisque
- (1874) Slave Carrying Fruit (Ghent Museum)
- (1874) Portrait of Eugene Louis Napoleon Bonaparte
- (1875) Chloé (Chloe), Young and Jacksons Hotel Melbourne
- (1876) Mary Magdalene in the Grotto
- (1877) Pandora
- (1878) Mignon Metropolitan Museum, New York.
- (1878) Graziella, Metropolitan Museum, New York.
- (1879) Diana
- (1879) Diana Surprised (Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires)
- (1880) Portrait of Julia Foster Ward
- (1881) La Fiametta (1881) from Boccaccio
- (1882) Pandora (II)
- (1882) Japonaise (A Japanese)
- (1883) Psyche
- (1884) The Feathered Fan
- (1884) Portrait of Edna Barger. Private collection
- (1890) Lady Godiva
- Opehlia (1890) Ophelia
- (1892) A Daughter of Eve
- (1896) Portrait of a Lady (II)
- (1898) Amor beim Schärfen seiner Pfeile (Love sharpening its arrows)
- (1901) Alexander Agassiz
- (1901) Yvonne (formerly Musée du Luxembourg), Portrait of Lefebvre's daughter