Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/621

 In Feance. 591 Paul Delaroche (1797—1856), the celebrated painter of historic scenes, was born in Paris. He studied art under Gros, and exhibited his first picture in 1819; but it was not till 1824 that he produced three paintings which earned him his celebrity — these were Vincent de Paul preaching ; Joan of Arc examined in Prison; and a S. Sebastian. In succeeding years he painted his well-known Death of Queen Elizabeth, and the Children of Edward IV., both in the Louvre ; the Death of the Due de Guise, and many other equally celebrated pictures. His chief work, however, was the decoration, in encaustic, of the Amphitheatre of the Palais des Beaux-Arts — to which he devoted four years. In this stupendous work, known as the Hemicycle, Delaroche introduced seventy-five full-length portraits of the most eminent painters, sculptors, architects and engravers. Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix (1799 — 1863) was born at Charenton Saint-Maurice, near Paris. When eighteen years of age he entered the studio of Guerin; but, dissatisfied with that master's art, struck out a new path for himself and became the leader of the so-called " Romantic School." In 1830 he visited Spain, Algiers, and Morocco, and on his return was much patronized by M. Thiers, who procured for him the commission to paint numerous works in the Palais Bourbon, the Hotel de Ville, the Luxembourg, the Louvre, and other public buildings as well as churches in Paris. Eugene Delacroix is well represented by four works in the Louvre : Dante and Virgil painted in 1822, the Massacre of Scio in 1823, the Algerian Women in 1834, and the Jewish marriage in Morocco. These works were succeeded by the Bridge of Taillebourg, a Medea, the