Jules Joseph Lefebvre

(Tournan, Gers, March 14, 1836 - Paris, February 24, 1912)

Jules Joseph Lefebvre (Tournan, Gers, March 14, 1836 - Paris, February 24, 1912) was a French figure painter. Lefebvre entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1852 and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet. 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 an instructor at the Académie Julian in Paris. He is chiefly important as an excellent and sympathetic teacher who numbered many Americans among his 1500 or more pupils. One of his famous students was the Scottish born landscape painter William Hart. Georges Rochegrosse, Félix Vallotton, the Americans Childe Hassam, John Henry Twachtman, John Noble Barlow, Augustus Kenderdine, and Charles A. Platt were also his pupils. He was long a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts. His paintings are usually single figures of beautiful women.

Among his best portraits were those of M. L. Reynaud and the Prince Imperial (1874). Among his many decorations were a first-class medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1878 and the medal of honor in 1886. He was a Commander of the Legion of Honor and a member of the Institut de France. (From wikipedia)