Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Jean-Paul Laurens - Emperor Maximilian of Mexico before the Execution [1882]


Jean-Paul Laurens (March 28, 1838 – March 23, 1921), was a French painter and sculptor, and one of the last major exponents of the French Academic style.

Born in Fourquevaux, he was a pupil of Léon Cogniet and Alexandre Bida. Strongly anti-clerical and republican, his work was often on historical and religious themes, through which he sought to convey a message of opposition to monarchical and clerical oppression. His erudition and technical mastery were much admired in his time, but in later years his hyper-realistic technique, coupled to a highly theatrical mise-en-scène, came to be regarded as overly didactic and even involuntarily comical. He died in Paris in 1921.

[Oil on canvas, 222 x 303 cm]

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