Background
Baudry was born on the 7th of November, 1828 at La Roche-sur-Yonne, Vendee, France.
Baudry was born on the 7th of November, 1828 at La Roche-sur-Yonne, Vendee, France.
Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry studied under Drolling, a sound but second-rate artist. His talent from the first revealed itself as strictly academical, full of elegance and grace, but somewhat lacking originality.
In the course of his residence in Italy Baudry derived strong inspiration from Italian art with the mannerism of Coreggio, as was very evident in the two works he exhibited in the Salon of 1857, which were purchased for the Luxembourg: "The Martyrdom of a Vestal Virgin" and "The Child. " His "Leda, " "St John the Baptist, " and a "Portrait of Beule, " exhibited at the same time, took a first prize that year. Throughout this early period Baudry commonly selected mythological or fanciful subjects, one of the most noteworthy being "The Pearl and the Wave. " Once only did he attempt an historical picture, "Charlotte Corday after the murder of Marat" (1861); and returned by preference to the former class of subjects or to painting portraits of illustrious men of his day-Guizot, Charles Garnier, Edmond About. The works that crowned Baudry's reputation were his mural decorations, which show much imagination and a high artistic gift for colour, as may be seen in the frescoes in the Paris Cour de Cassation, at the chateau of Chantilly, and some private residences-the hotel Fould and hotel Paivabut, above all, in the decorations of the foyer of the Paris opera house. These, more than thirty paintings in all, and among them compositions figurative of dancing and music, occupied the painter, for ten years. Baudry died in Paris in 1886.
Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry was a member of the Institut de France, succeeding Jean Victor Schnetz and a member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.