Curated playlist
19th-century French painters
- Joseph-Noël SylvestreJoseph-Noël Sylvestre painted a barbarian sword raised over a fallen Rome.
- Edgar DegasEdgar Degas showed only one sculpture in his lifetime. After he died, heirs found 150 wax figures in his studio.
- Claude MonetImpressionism began as a critic's insult. Claude Monet's painting Impression, Sunrise gave it the name.
- Paul CézannePaul Cézanne was rejected by the Salon de Paris every year from 1864 to 1869.
- Henri MatisseHenri Matisse did not pick up a paintbrush until he was nineteen. He had been trained as a lawyer.
- Pierre-Auguste RenoirPainter Renoir was once mistaken for a spy and nearly thrown into the Seine. A man he had once protected stepped in.
- François BouchotFrançois Bouchot died in 1842 while preparing murals for a new chapel at Luxembourg Palace.
- Édouard ManetÉdouard Manet's judge father planned law or the navy for him, but he became a painter.
- Paul GauguinPaul Gauguin was a stockbroker who painted only on weekends. A 1882 market crash pushed him toward full-time art.
- Édouard CibotAround 1863, painter Édouard Cibot walked away from church art to paint landscapes.
- Eugène DelacroixTalleyrand privately considered himself the real father of the painter Eugène Delacroix.
- Antoine-Alphonse MontfortPainter Antoine-Alphonse Montfort dressed as a local, lived in a tent and studied Arabic.
- Gustave MoreauGustave Moreau asked that flowers for his funeral go to another woman's grave.
- Henri Félix Emmanuel PhilippoteauxA Gettysburg cyclorama by a French father and son reportedly drew half a million people in a year.
- Jacques-Louis DavidNapoleon never sat for David's painting of his own coronation. Pope Pius VII did, and blessed the painter.
- Jean-Baptiste DebretPainter Jean-Baptiste Debret helped design the first flag for an independent Brazil. He worked with Jose Bonifacio.
- Édouard DetailleÉdouard Detaille was described as the "semi-official artist of the French army," a label very few painters have ever earned. Jean-Baptiste Édouard Detaille was born on the 5th of October 1848 and died on the 23rd of December 1912. In those…
- Antoine-Jean GrosPainter Antoine-Jean Gros drowned himself in a river outside Paris after reading reviews of his final exhibition.
- Horace VernetHorace Vernet was born inside the Louvre while his parents sheltered there during the French Revolution.
- Jean-Auguste-Dominique IngresThe French phrase "violon d'Ingres" comes from a painter's violin. It means a person's second skill.
- Jean-Léon GérômeJean-Léon Gérôme taught more than 2,000 students, including Mary Cassatt and Thomas Eakins.
- Charles de SteubenPoet Friedrich Schiller saw the talent of Charles de Steuben when he was a young court page.
- François GérardFrançois Gérard painted for Napoleon, then for the kings who replaced him. He served both regimes as court painter.
- Gustave DoréBritish critics disliked Gustave Doré's book of London, saying he drew its poverty. Van Gogh painted one scene.
- Paul DelarochePaul Delaroche stopped showing his paintings in public in 1837, when he was one of France's most celebrated painters.
- Louis Carrogis CarmontelleLouis Carrogis Carmontelle built a machine that rolled painted landscapes past a backlit window.