Joseph Desire Court

Joseph-Désiré Court painted history subjects and elegant portraits in the smooth, carefully finished academic manner of the French Restoration. His women are graceful and softly lit, and his history pieces are big, dramatic and full of gesture.

He was born in Rouen in 1797 and trained in Paris under Antoine-Jean Gros. He won the Prix de Rome in 1821 with Samson and Delilah. His Death of Caesar of 1827 made his name, and he went on to paint Mirabeau confronting Dreux-Brézé, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen. He was also in demand as a society portraitist, and his sitters included Russian aristocrats such as Princess Yekaterina Shcherbatova. In 1853 he became curator of the museum in Rouen.

His Young Girl at the Scamander River shows his gentle, polished treatment of the nude. He died in Paris in 1865.