Biography

French painter, one of the leading pupils of Gros. He achieved great popularity with his melodramatic history scenes, engravings of his work hanging in thousands of homes. Often he chose subjects from English history, as with two of his most famous works, The Little Princes in the Tower (Louvre, Paris, 1831) and The Execution of Lady Jane Grey (National Gallery, London, 1833). They are Romantic in flavour, but academically impeccable in their draughtsmanship and detailing. After a period when such pictures were totally out of favour, his work is once again being treated seriously.