Background
He was born in 1849 in Paris, France.
He was born in 1849 in Paris, France.
He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, studied with Jean Bremond.
Until about 1880 he followed the academic tradition, but then broke away completely, and devoted himself to the study of colour and light as conceived by the Impressionists. The realism of this group never appealed to his bold imagination, but he applied their technical method to ideological and decorative works on a large scale, such as his frescoes at the Sorbonne, the Ecole de Pharmacie, the ceiling of the Comédie-Française (main theatre in Paris), the Salle des Sciences at the Hôtel de Ville, the mairie of the 1st arrondissement, and the chapel of Berck hospital, for which he painted twelve Stations of the Cross in an entirely modern spirit.
A great virtuoso, he achieved brilliant successes alike in watercolour, pastel, oil and etching, both in portraiture, in landscape and in decoration. His close analysis of light can be studied in his picture La femme qui se chauffe at the Luxembourg in Paris, one of a large group of nude studies of which a later example is Une Nymphe au bord de la mer; and in the work produced during and after a visit to India in 1911. A large panel, Peace by Arbitration, was completed seven days before the outbreak of war in 1914.
Combining traditional elements with atmospheric effects in the Impressionistic manner, his decorative style was easily accepted, and for more than half a century he was ranked with the best of the middle-of-the-road artists.
His notable worksare the Portrait de Théâtre (Madame Réjane), and Mme. Roger Jourdain.
A foundation member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1890, in 1913 he became a member of the Institute.
