Paul Baudry

Paul Baudry was a French academic painter of mythological, allegorical and portrait subjects, known for his smooth, graceful nudes. He was greatly admired for his large decorative schemes.

Born in La Roche-sur-Yon, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and won the Prix de Rome in 1850. His most famous project was the decoration of the foyer of the Paris Opera, with more than thirty paintings that took ten years. His painting The Pearl and the Wave of 1862 is in the Prado.

Look at the smooth skin and soft light on his figures, and the pale, delicate colour of his mythologies.