François-Léon Benouville

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.

The Wrath of Achilles (1847) by François-Léon Benouville (Musée Fabre)

Both he and his brother travelled to Rome. In Rome, as a Prix de Rome pensionary at the Villa Medici. He remained there for a year, but his brother stayed on for two more years. His works produced in Rome are influenced by early Christianity and often show representations of antiquity.

Esther à l'odalisque (1844), Musée de Beaux-Arts de Pau

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

In 1845, Benouville, together with contemporary Alexandre Cabanel, was the recipient the Prix de Beaux Arts for his painting, Jesus at the Pretorium.[1]

• 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

Joan of Arc hearing voices, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen

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

List of Orientalist artists Orientalism

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)