2003:CB:372E:CF7B:FD3D:6179:482B:4AF5: /* Biography */ added reference for the Salon jury

2025-10-22T16:01:43Z

Biography: added reference for the Salon jury

New page

{{Short description|French painter (1823–1889)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}{{more citations needed|date=May 2013}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Alexandre Cabanel
| image = Self Portrait (Alexandre Cabanel).jpg
| caption = ''[[Self-Portrait]]'', 1852, [[Musée Fabre]]
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1823|9|28|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Montpellier]], France
| death_date = {{death date and age|1889|1|23|1823|9|28|df=y}}
| death_place = Paris, France
| known_for = [[Painting]]
| training = [[François-Édouard Picot]]
| movement = [[Academic art|Academicism]]
| notable_works = ''[[The Birth of Venus (Cabanel)|Birth of Venus]]''
| patrons =
| awards = [[Prix de Rome]]
|module={{Infobox person|child=yes
| signature = Cabanel, Alexandre 1823-1889 deWP Signature.jpg}}
}}

'''Alexandre Cabanel''' ({{IPA|fr|kabanɛl|lang}}; 28 September 1823 – 23 January 1889) was a French [[Painting|painter]]. He painted historical, classical and religious subjects in the [[Academic art|academic style]].<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Kidd |first1=Rebecca |title=Alexandre Cabanel's St. Monica in a Landscape: A Departure from Iconographic Traditions |date=2019 |url=https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/2208/ }}</ref> He was also well known as a portrait painter. He was [[Napoleon III]]'s preferred painter<ref>''Diccionario Enciclopedico Salvat'', Barcelona, 1982.</ref> and, with [[Gérôme]] and [[Ernest Meissonier|Meissonier]], was one of "the three most successful artists of the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]]."<ref>Wright, Barbara. ''Eugéne Fromentin: A Life in Art and Letters'', Bern: Peter Lang, 2000, p. 432.</ref>

==Career==
Cabanel was the son of a modest carpenter, and he began his apprenticeship at the Montpellier School of Fine Arts in the class of Charles Matet, curator of the [[Musée Fabre]]. Equipped with a scholarship, he moved to Paris in 1839.

Cabanel entered the [[École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts|École des Beaux-Arts in Paris]] at the age of seventeen, in 1840, where he studied with [[François-Édouard Picot]].

After two failures, with the paintings ''Cincinnatus receiving the ambassadors of Rome'', in 1843, and ''Christ in the Garden of Olives'', in 1844, he won the [[Prix de Rome]] scholarship, in 1845 at the age of 22.<ref>{{cite book|last=Facos|first=Michelle|title=An Introduction to Nineteenth Century Art|year=2011|publisher=Routledge|page=282}}</ref> He would be a resident of the [[Villa Medici]] until 1850.

Cabanel was both a history painter and a genre painter, and he evolved over the years towards romantic themes, like ''Albaydé'' (1848), inspired by ''Les Orientales'', by [[Victor Hugo]] (1829).

He received the insignia of knight of the [[Legion of Honor]], in 1855.

Also in 1855, he married Marie-Clémentine Legrand, with whom he had three children. Legrand and two of the children died in 1867. He remarried in 1869, but his second wife also died just four years later.<ref>{{cite web|title=Alexandre Cabanel|url=https://cirtemmysart.com/blog/alexandre-cabanel/#:~:text=After%20a%20year%20of%20study,died%20just%20four%20years%20later|publisher=Cirtemmysart|date=15 June 2022}}</ref>

He gained more recognition with ''[[The Birth of Venus (Cabanel)|The Birth of Venus]]'', exhibited at the Salon of 1863, and which was immediately purchased by [[Napoleon III]] for his personal collection. The acclaimed painting entered the [[Luxembourg Museum]], in 1881, and is now held at the [[Musée d'Orsay]], in Paris. He signed a contract with the Goupil house for the marketing of engraved reproductions of this painting. There is a smaller replica, painted in 1875 for a banker, John Wolf, now at the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], in New York City. It was offered to the museum by Wolf in 1893. The classical composition embodies ideals of [[Academic art]]: a mythological subject, graceful modeling, silky brushwork, and perfected forms. This style was perennially popular with collectors, even as when it was challenged by artists seeking a more realistic approach, such as [[Gustave Courbet]]. He was also criticized by writers and critics like [[Émile Zola]] and [[Joris-Karl Huysmans]], who were more open to the modern artistic tendencies.

==French Academy of Fine Arts==
Cabanel was elected a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in the 10th chair, in 1863. He was appointed professor at the [[École des Beaux-Arts]] in 1864, where he taught until his death.<ref>{{cite book|last=van Hook|first=Bailey|title=Angels of Art: Women and Art in American Society, 1876–1914|year=1996|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|page=28}}</ref> He was in the same year promoted to the rank of officer of the [[Legion of Honor]].

Between 1868 and 1888, he was a member of the Salon jury seventeen times: "He was elected regularly to the Salon jury and his pupils could be counted by the hundred at the Salons. Through them, Cabanel did more than any other artist of his generation to form the character of the ''belle époque'' French painting".<ref>''Dictionary of Art'' (1996) vol. 5, pp. 341-344</ref> His refusal together with [[William-Adolphe Bouguereau]] to allow the [[impressionism|impressionist]] painter [[Édouard Manet]], and other painters, to exhibit their work in the Salon of 1863 led to the establishment of the [[Salon des Refusés]] by the French government. Cabanel won the Great Medal of Honour at the Salons of 1865, 1867, and 1878.

The Salon jury was not liberal, they accepted and promoted only academic-style paintings with the intention of securing this art in the memory of the public for eternity.<ref>{{cite book|author1=John Nici|title=Famous Works of Art And How They Got That Way|year=2015|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=9798765168752|page=153}}</ref> Cabanel intervened in 1881 during the presentation of ''Pertuiset, Le chasseur de lions'', by [[Édouard Manet]], and defended it by saying: "Gentlemen, there is not one among us who is capable of doing a head like that in the open air!". At the [[Exposition Universelle (1867)|Universal Exhibition of 1867]], Cabanel was awarded the Knight's Cross of the First Class of the Order of Merit of Saint Michael of Bavaria, following his ''Paradise Lost'', commissioned for the Maximilianeum, in [[Munich]], by [[Ludwig II of Bavaria]]. He was promoted to the rank of Commander of the Legion of Honor in 1884, and was elected associate of the Royal Academy of Belgium on 6 January 1887.

He died on 24 January 1889, in his hotel at 14 rue Alfred de Vigny, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. His funeral took place in [[Paris]], on 26 January 1889, in the Saint-Philippe du Roule church, then his body was transported to [[Montpellier]], where it was buried in the Saint-Lazare on 28 January 1889. A monument was erected to him in 1892 by the architect Jean Camille Formigé, decorated with a marble bust by Paul Dubois and a sculpture, ''Regret'', by [[Antonin Mercié]].

==Pupils==
[[File:Alexandre Cabanel - Self Portrait (1847).jpg|thumb|Portrait of Victor Massé (1847).]]
[[File:Alexandre Cabanel BNF Gallica.jpg|thumb|Alexandre Cabanel, {{Circa|1865}}. Photograph by Charles Reutlinger (?).]]
[[File:L atelier de Cabanel a l ecole des Beaux Arts.jpg|thumb|Cabanel's workshop at the School of Fine Arts., 1883, painting by Tancrède Bastet, [[Museum of Grenoble]].]]
His pupils included:
* [[Rodolfo Amoedo]]
* [[Joseph Aubert]]
* [[Henry Bacon]]
* [[George Randolph Barse]]
* [[Alexandre Jean-Baptiste Brun]]
* [[Jean-Eugène Buland]]
* [[Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant]]
* [[Vlaho Bukovac]]
* [[Gaston Bussière (painter)|Gaston Bussière]]
* [[Louis Capdevielle]]
* [[Eugène Carrière]]
* [[Eugène Chigot]]
* [[Jacqueline Comerre-Paton]]
* [[Fernand Cormon]]
* [[Pierre Auguste Cot]]
* [[Kenyon Cox]]
* [[Édouard Debat-Ponsan]]
* {{Interlanguage link|Gabriel-Charles Deneux|fr}}
* [[Louis Deschamps (painter)]]
* [[Émile Friant]]
* [[François Guiguet]]
* [[Jules Bastien-Lepage]]
* [[François Flameng]]
* [[Charles Fouqueray]]
* [[Frank Fowler (artist)|Frank Fowler]]
* [[Henri Gervex]]
* [[Charles Lucien Léandre]]
* [[Max Leenhardt]]
* [[Henri Le Sidaner]]
* [[Aristide Maillol]]
* {{Interlanguage link|Édouard-Antoine Marsal|fr}}
* [[João Marques de Oliveira]]
* [[Jan Monchablon]]
* [[Georges Moreau de Tours]]
* {{Interlanguage link|Henri-Georges Morisset|fr}}
* [[Henri Pinta]]
* [[Henri Regnault]]
* [[Iakovos Rizos]]
* [[Louis Royer]]
* [[Jean-Jacques Scherrer]]
* [[António Silva Porto]]
* [[Edward Stott]]
* [[Joseph-Noël Sylvestre]]
* [[Solomon Joseph Solomon]]
* [[Paul Tavernier]]
* [[Almeida Júnior]]
* [[Étienne Terrus]]
* [[Adolphe Willette]]

==Selected works==
[[File:Alexandre Cabanel - The Birth of Venus - Google Art Project 2.jpg|thumb|300px|''[[The Birth of Venus (Cabanel)|The Birth of Venus]]'' (1863)]]
* [[The Fallen Angel (painting)|''The Fallen Angel'']] (''L'ange déchu'', 1847), [[Musée Fabre]], [[Montpellier]]
* ''Aglaé and [[Boniface of Tarsus|Boniface]]'' (''Aglaé et Boniface'', 1857), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio US
* ''[[The Birth of Venus (Cabanel)|The Birth of Venus]]'' (''La naissance de Vénus'', 1863), [[Musée d'Orsay]], [[Paris]]
* ''Napoleon III'' (1865), Musée national du château de Compiègne, Écouen, France
* ''The Death of [[Francesca da Rimini]] and Paolo Malatesta'' (''La mort de Francesca de Rimini et de Paolo Malatesta'', 1870), [[Musée d'Orsay]], [[Paris]]
* ''Portrait de la comtesse de Keller'' (1873), [[Musée d'Orsay]], [[Paris]]
* ''Thamar'' (1875)
* ''[[Phaedra (Cabanel)|Phèdre]]'' (1880), [[Musée Fabre]], [[Montpellier]]
* ''Ruth glanant dans les champs de Booz'' (1886), Musée Garinet, [[Châlons-en-Champagne]]
* ''Portrait de [[Mary Curzon, Baroness Curzon of Kedleston|Mary Victoria Leiter]]'' (1887), [[Kedleston Hall]], England
* ''[[Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners]]'' (''Cléopâtre essayant des poisons sur des condamnés à mort'', 1887), [[Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp]]
* ''[[Portrait of Napoleon III (Cabanel)]]''

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Alexandre Cabanel - Fallen Angel.jpg|[[The Fallen Angel (painting)|''The Fallen Angel'']] (1847)
File:Alexandre Cabanel - Albayde.jpg|''[[Albaydé]]'' (1848)
File:Alexandre Cabanel - Death of Moses.jpeg|''The Death of Moses'' (1850)
File:Nymphe et Saty (Alexandre Cabanel) 1860.JPG|''[[Nymph and Satyr (Cabanel)|Nymph and Satyr]]'' (1860)
File:Alexandre Cabanel 002.jpg|''[[Portrait of Napoleon III (Cabanel)|Portrait of Napoleon III]]'' (c. 1865)
File:Expulsion of Adam and Eve (Alexandre Cabanel).jpg|''The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Paradise'' (1867)
File:Inf. 06 Alexandre Cabanel, Morte di Francesca da Rimini e di Paolo Malatesta, 1870.jpg|''The death of [[Francesca da Rimini]] and [[Paolo Malatesta]]'' (1870)
File:Cornelia Lyman Warren.png|''Portrait of [[Cornelia Warren|Cornelia Lyman Warren]]'' (1871)
File:Alexandre Cabanel - Portrait Of Countess E A Vorontsova Dashkova.jpg|''Portrait of Countess [[:ru:Воронцова-Дашкова, Елизавета Андреевна|Elizabeth Vorontsova-Dashkova]]'' (1873)
File:Alexandre Cabanel - Pandora - Walters 3799.jpg|''Pandora'' (1873), [[The Walters Art Museum]]
File:Alexandre Cabanel - Echo.jpg|''[[Echo (mythology)|Echo]]'' (1874)
File:Alexandre cabanel, thamar, 1875, 01.JPG|''Thamar'' (1875)
File:Alexandre Cabanel - Harmonie.jpg|''[[Harmonie]]'' (1877)
File:Alexandre Cabanel - The Daughter of Jephthah (1879, Oil on canvas).JPG|''The daughter of [[Jephthah]]'' (1879)
File:Alexandre Cabanel Phèdre.jpg|''[[Phaedra (mythology)|Phaedra]]'' (1880)
File:Alexandre Cabanel, Ophelia.JPG|''[[Ophelia]]'' (1883)
File:Alexandre Cabanel - Cléopatre essayant des poisons sur des condamnés à mort.jpg|''[[Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners]]'' (1887)
File:Alexandre Cabanel - The Mocking of Christ.jpg|''The [[Mocking of Jesus|Mocking]] of [[Jesus|Christ]]'' (1845)
File:Alexandre Cabanel - The Glorification of St. Louis.jpg|''The Glorification of St. Louis'' (1853–1855)
File:Cabanel, Alexandre - Le Titan - 233 - Maison de Victor Hugo.jpg|''Le Titan'' (1884)
</gallery>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons and category|Alexandre Cabanel}}
* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/cabanel_alexandre.html Alexandre Cabanel at Artcyclopedia]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070808121453/http://www.insecula.com/us/contact/A005672.html Paintings of Alexandre Cabanel on Insecula]
* [http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artist.php?artistid=5 Alexandre Cabanel at the Art Renewal Center]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090526221504/http://www.theartinpixels.com/alexandre-cabanel/ Alexandre Cabanel at The Art in Pixels]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160729184657/http://alexandrecabanel.com/ Alexandre Cabanel at alexandrecabanel.com]
* [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/110000264 MET Museum collection]

{{Alexandre Cabanel}}
{{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cabanel, Alexandre}}
[[Category:1823 births]]
[[Category:1889 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century French painters]]
[[Category:French male painters]]
[[Category:Artists from Montpellier]]
[[Category:Painters from Occitania (administrative region)]]
[[Category:French romantic painters]]
[[Category:French neoclassical painters]]
[[Category:Prix de Rome for painting]]
[[Category:Academic art]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the École des Beaux-Arts]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie des beaux-arts]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Academy of Belgium]]
[[Category:19th-century French male artists]]

Alexandre Cabanel - Revision history

2003:CB:372E:CF7B:FD3D:6179:482B:4AF5: /* Biography */ added reference for the Salon jury