Julius LeBlanc Stewart

Julius LeBlanc Stewart painted high society in Belle Époque Paris: elegant women in silk gowns, yachting parties and grand drawing rooms, along with a series of luminous nudes in forest settings.

Born in Philadelphia to a wealthy family, he moved to Paris as a child and studied with Eduardo Zamacois, Jean-Léon Gérôme and Raimundo de Madrazo. He spent his life in Paris, where he was called “the Parisian from Philadelphia”. His large group portraits include The Baptism, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and On the Yacht Namouna, Venice, in the Wadsworth Atheneum.

Nymphes de Nysa, in the Musée d’Orsay, shows his outdoor nudes in dappled light.