Jules Joseph Lefebvre

1834 Tournan-en-Brie – 1912 Paris

Jules Lefebvre was apprenticed to Léon Cogniet and went on to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He first exhibited his work at the Paris Salon in 1855 and won the coveted Prix de Rome in 1861. Lefebvre was a celebrated painter in his time, his nude paintings and idealised, erotically tinged depictions of women proving highly popular with the public. In later years he concentrated for the most part on portrait painting, especially portraits of women which are notable for their technical brilliance. From 1870 on, Lefebvre was an influential teacher at the Académie Julian in Paris, counting Childe Hassam, Fernand Khnopff and the painter, Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau, among his pupils.