Introduction
Jules Joseph Lefebvre (French: [ʒyl ʒɔzɛf ləfɛːvʁ]) (14 March 1834 – 24 February 1912) was a French figure painter, educator and theorist.
Early life
Lefebvre was born in Tournan-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, on 14 March 1834. He entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1852 and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet.
Career
He won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1861. Between 1855 and 1898, he exhibited 72 portraits in the Paris Salon. In 1891, he became a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts.
He was professor at the Académie Julian in Paris. Lefebvre is chiefly important as an excellent and sympathetic teacher who numbered many Americans among his 1500 or more pupils. Among his famous students were Fernand Khnopff, Kenyon Cox, Félix Vallotton, Ernst Friedrich von Liphart, Georges Rochegrosse, the Scottish-born landscape painter William Hart, Walter Lofthouse Dean, and Edmund C. Tarbell, who became an American Impressionist painter.
Many of his paintings are single figures of beautiful women. Among his best portraits were those of M. L. Reynaud and the Prince Imperial (1874).
Lefebvre died in Paris on 24 February 1912.
Significant milestones
- 1853 Student at the École des Beaux-Arts
- 1859 Second place Prix de Rome
- 1861 His Death of Priam wins the Prix de Rome
- 1870 Académie Julianprofessor
- 1870 Légion d'honneur, Officer, named Commander from 1898
- 1891 Member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts
Selected works
- 1861 The Death of Priam (Won the Prix de Rome), École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris
- 1861 Diva Vittoria Colonna
- 1863 Boy Painting a Tragic Mask
- 1864 Roman Charity
- 1865 Portrait d'Antonio, modèle italien
- 1866 Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi
- 1868 Reclining Nude, Musée d'Orsay.
- 1869 Le Réveil de Diane
- 1869 Portrait of Alexandre Dumas
- 1870 La Vérité (The Truth) (1870), oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay, Paris. The painting is contemporary with the first small scale model made by Lefebvre's fellow-Frenchman Frédéric Bartholdi for what became the Statue of Liberty, striking a similar pose, though fully clothed.
- 1870s Jeune femme à la mandoline (Girl with a Mandolin)
- 1870 Portrait du Prince Impérial
- 1872 Pandora
- 1872 La Cigale, National Gallery of Victoria
- 1874 Odalisque
- 1874 Slave Carrying Fruit (Ghent Museum)
- 1874 Portrait of Eugène Louis Napoléon Bonaparte
- 1875 Chloé, Young and Jackson Hotel, Melbourne
- 1876 Mary Magdalene in the Cave, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
- 1877 Pandora
- 1878 Mignon, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- 1878 Graziella, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- 1879 Diana
- 1879 Diana Surprised, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires
- 1880 Portrait of Julia Foster Ward
- 1880 Housemaid, Pera Museum, Istanbul
- 1881 La Fiametta from Giovanni Boccaccio
- 1882 Pandora (II)
- 1882 Japonaise (A Japanese woman)
- 1883 Psyche
- 1884 The Feathered Fan
- 1884 Portrait of Edna Barger, private collection
- 1890 Lady Godiva
- 1890 Ophelia
- 1892 A Daughter of Eve
- 1896 Portrait of a Lady (II)
- 1898 Amor beim Schärfen seiner Pfeile (Love sharpening its arrows)
- 1901 Alexander Agassiz
- 1901 Yvonne (formerly Musée du Luxembourg), Portrait of Lefebvre's daughter
Undated works
- Clémence Isaure
- La Fiancée (The Fiancée)
- Woman with an Orange
- Nymph with Morning Glory Flowers
- Fleurs des Champs
- L'Amour Blessé (Wounded Love)
- Mediterranean Beauty
- Portrait of a Lady
- Portrait of a Woman
- Young Woman with Morning Glories in Her Hair
- Works by Jules Lefebvre
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La jeune rieuse (1861), Musée de Picardie, Amiens, France.
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La Mort de Priam (1861), ENSBA, Paris.
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La Vérité (1870), Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
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La Cigale (1872), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
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Chloé (1875), Young & Jackson, Melbourne.
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Servante (1880), Pera Museum, Istanbul.
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Odalisque (1874), Art Institute of Chicago.
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Japonaise (1882)
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Ophelia (1890)
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Lady Godiva (1891), Musée de Picardie, Amiens.
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Nymph with Morning Glory Flowers
Pupils
Lefebvre's students included:
- Jules Benoit-Lévy