Alexandre Cabanel

Alexandre Cabanel was one of the most successful academic painters of Second Empire France. His pictures are smooth, polished and carefully drawn, with idealised bodies, rich colour and grand subjects from myth, history and the Bible. He was also much in demand for society portraits.

He was born in Montpellier in 1823 and entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris at seventeen, studying under François-Édouard Picot. He won the Prix de Rome in 1845 and spent five years at the Villa Medici. His Birth of Venus of 1863 was bought by Napoleon III and is now in the Musée d’Orsay. Other key works include The Fallen Angel and Phèdre, both in the Musée Fabre in Montpellier. He became a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts and sat on the Salon jury many times. He died in Paris in 1889.

The Death of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta shows his gift for drama held in check by careful finish.