Paul Delaroche

Paul Delaroche (1797-1856) was a French academic history painter. While his subjects are often in the Romantic vein, his method of depiction tended to be more modern, particularly in his aim to present in his work a “philosophical analysis” of a historical event and link it to “the nineteenth-century understanding of historical truth and historical time.” The son of a picture dealer, he studied at L’École des Beaux-Arts under Louis Étienne Watelet, but left after two years to work with neo-classical painter Antoine-Jean Gros. He first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1822. In 1837 he stopped exhibiting his work altogether and commenced his most famous work, The Hemicycle painted on the semicircular saloon at L’École des Beaux-Arts.