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Paul Delaroche |
Hippolyte Delaroche, commonly known as Paul Delaroche (July 17, 1797 – November 4, 1856) was a French painter born in Paris.
Delaroche was born into a wealthy family and was trained by Antoine-Jean, Baron Gros, who then painted life-size histories and had many students.
The first Delaroche picture exhibited was the large "Josabeth saving Joas" (1822). This exhibition led to his acquaintance with Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix, with whom he became friends. The three of them formed the core of a large group of Parisian historical painters.
He visited Italy in 1838 and 1843, when his father-in-law, Horace Vernet, was director of the French Academy in Rome.
His studio in Paris was in the Rue Mazarine. His subjects were painted with a firm, solid, smooth surface, which gave an appearance of the highest finish. This texture was the manner of the day and was also found in the works of Horace Vernet, Ary Scheffer, Louis-Leopold Robert and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.
Delaroche's work was not always historically accurate. "Cromwell lifting the Coffin-lid and looking at the Body of Charles" is based on an urban legend, and "The Execution of Lady Jane Grey" is represented as taking place in a dungeon, which is badly inaccurate. He tended to care more about dramatic effect than historical truth: see also "The King in the Guardroom," where villainous Puritan soldiers blow tobacco smoke in the face of King Charles, and "Queen Elizabeth Dying on the Ground."
Other dramatic paintings include "Strafford Led to Execution," showing Archbishop Laud stretching his arms out of the small high window of his cell to give Strafford a blessing as he passes along the corridor; and "Assassination of the duc de Guise at Blois." Another famous work shows Cardinal Richelieu in a gorgeous barge, preceding the boat carrying Cinq-Mars and De Thou carried to their execution. Other important Delaroche works include "The Princes in the Tower" and the "La Jeune Martyre" (showing a young female martyr floating dead on the Tiber).
Delaroche's love for Horace Vernet's young daughter Louise was the absorbing passion of his life. In 1835, he exhibited "Head of an Angel," which was based on a study of her. It is said that Delaroche never recovered from the shock of her 1845 death. After her death he produced a sequence of small elaborate pictures of incidents in Jesus' Passion. He focused attention on the human drama of the Passion, as in a painting where Mary and the apostles hear the crowd cheering Jesus on the Via Dolorosa, and another where St. John escorts Mary home after her son's death.
Delaroche's paintings, with their straightforward technique and dramatic compositions, became very popular. He applied essentially the same treatment to the characters of distant historical times, the founders of the Christian religion, and the real people of his own day, such as "Napoleon at Fontainebleau," "Napoleon at St Helena," or "Marie Antoinette leaving the Convention after her sentence."
In 1837 Delaroche received the commission for the great picture, 27 metres (88.5 ft) long, in the hemicycle of the award theatre of the École des Beaux Arts. The commission came from the Ecole's architect, Felix Duban. The painting represents seventy-five great artists of all ages, in conversation, assembled in groups on either hand of a central elevation of white marble steps, on the topmost of which are three thrones filled by the creators of the Parthenon: architect Phidias, sculptor Ictinus, and painter Apelles, symbolizing the unity of these arts.
To supply the female element in this vast composition he introduced the genii or muses, who symbolize or reign over the arts, leaning against the balustrade of the steps, depicted as idealized female figures. The painting is done directly on the wall, in oil paints. Delaroche finished the work in 1841, but it was considerably damaged by a fire in 1855. He immediately set about trying to re-paint and restore the work, but died on November 4, 1856, before he had accomplished much of this. The restoration was finished by Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury.
 "The Execution of Lady Jane Grey" (1833, National Gallery, London) |
 "The Death of Elizabeth I, Queen of England" (1828, Louvre) |
 Cromwell and the corpse of Charles I |
 "Bonaparte Crossing the Alps" (1848, Louvre) |
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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