Background
Jean-Paul Laurens was born in Fourquevaux, France on March 28, 1838.
Jean-Paul Laurens was born in Fourquevaux, France on March 28, 1838.
Laurent initially studied painting at the art school in Toulouse and then he was a pupil of Léon Cogniet and Alexandre Bida.
His erudition and technical mastery were much admired in his time, but in later years his highly realistic technique, coupled to a theatrical mise-en-scène, came to be regarded by some art-historians as overly didactic. More recently, however, his work has been re-evaluated as an important and original renewal of history painting, a genre of painting that was in decline during Laurens' lifetime.
Laurens was commissioned to paint numerous public works by the French Third Republic, including the steel vault of the Paris City Hall, the monumental series on the life of Saint Genevieve in the apse of the Panthéon, the decorated ceiling of the Odéon Theater, and the hall of distinguished citizens at the Toulouse capitol. He also provided illustrations for Augustin Thierry's Récits des temps mérovingiens ("Accounts of Merovingian Times").
Laurens was highly respected teacher at the Académie Julian, Paris, and a professor at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he taught André Dunoyer de Segonzac and George Barbier.
He died in Paris, aged 82.
Les funérailles de Guillaume le Conquérant
Faust
John Chrysostom and Aelia Eudoxia
Hostages
Self-portrait
L'Agitateur du Languedoc
Death of Saint-Geneviève, Panthéon, Paris
Le pape et l'inquisiteur
The Last moments of Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico
Porträtt av en kvinna
The Death of Tiberius
The Byzantine Emperor Honorius
Strongly anti-clerical, his work was often on religious themes, through which he sought to convey a message of opposition to clerical oppression.
Strongly republican, his work was often on historical themes, through which he sought to convey a message of opposition to monarchical oppression.
From 1891 he was a member of the French Academy of Fine Arts.