François-Léon Benouville

The Wrath of Achilles, by François-Léon Benouville (Musée Fabre)

François-Léon Benouville (Paris 30 March 1821 – 16 February 1859 Paris) was a French painter.

Life and Career

Léon Benouville first studied with his elder brother Jean-Achille Benouville (1815–1891) in the studio of François-Edouard Picot before he transferred to École des Beaux-Arts in 1837. Like his brother he received the Prix de Rome in 1845. In Rome, as a Prix de Rome pensionary at the Villa Medici. His works produced in Rome are influenced by early Christianity and often show representations of antiquity.

Work and style

Benouville was best known for his portraits,mythological and religious compositions in the Neoclassical and Orientalist style. He worked in oils, ink and chalk.

Select list of paintings

• Portrait of Leconte de Floris 1840
• Melancholy c. 1843
• Esther 1844
• The Mockery of Christ 1845
• The Wrath of Achilles 1847
• Christian Martyrs enter the Amphitheatre, c.1855

Gallery

• 
  Samuel annoints David, 1842
• 
  Cincinnatus Receives a Deputation from the Senate, 1844
• 
  Jésus at the Pretorium 1843
• 
  The Wrath of Achilles, 1847
• 
  Christian Martyrs enter the Amphitheatre, c.1855
• 
  Portrait of Paul Baudry (French painter), c. 1855

See also

List of Orientalist artists Orientalism

External links

Media related to Léon Benouville at Wikimedia Commons

• François-Léon Benouville on Artcyclopedia
• Hudson River school visions: the landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Benouville (see index)