Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Portrait of the King of Rome
Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Pierre Prud'hon was born in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy on April 4, 1758, the tenth son of a stonecutter. He later changed his name into the more aristocratic sounding Pierre-Paul Prud'hon. He began studying painting at the Dijon Academy under François Devosge at the age of sixteen, and continued his studies at the Paris Academy in 1780. In 1784 he won the Prix de Rome, which gave him a pension to continue his education in Italy, where he stayed from 1785 to 1787. Although this was the period of Jacques-Louis David's triumphs in Rome, Prud'hon remained unimpressed by his countryman's neoclassicism. Italian masters, especially Correggio, had a much stronger and lasting effect on him.
In 1787 he returned to Paris and after working in obscurity for some time he became a favorite of both empresses of the French, Josephine and Marie-Louise, designing the decorations for the bridal suite of the latter. His first important commission, in 1798, was for a ceiling painting on allegorical themes in the palace of Saint-Cloud. This was followed by similar orders.
In 1801, Napoleon gave him commissions for portraits, ceiling decorations, and allegorical paintings. Napoleon's first wife, Joséphine, became his most influential patron, and Prud'hon executed many portraits for the family of the Bonapartes, among them a beautiful portrait of Joséphine. Napoleon's second wife, Marie-Louise, also admired his work, securing many commissions for him and employing him as her drawing master. His friendship with the statesman Talleyrand enabled him to remain in favor even after the fall of Napoleon in 1815, but he painted little in his final years.
Many of his paintings were on mythological and allegorical subjects and were commissioned for public buildings. To these belong Innocence Choosing Love over Wealth, fulfilled together with his pupil Marie Françoise Constance Mayer-Lamartiniere. Among his best-known pictures are Justice and Divine Vengeance pursuing Crime (Louvre, 1808), for which he received the Legion of Honor, and Venus and Adonis (Wallace Collection, London, commissioned 1810, but still in Prud'hon's studio at his death). "Prud'hon's true genius lay in allegory; this is his empire and his true domain,” his nephew Eugène Delacroix wrote. Prud'hon also designed furniture and interiors in classical lines. Prud'hon was an outstanding draughtsman, but many of his paintings are in poor condition because of his use of bitumen.
In his elegance, his grace, and his exquisite fancy he is akin to the epoch of Louis XVI – Jacques-Louis David referred to him slightingly as the Boucher of his time. But his deep personal feeling aligns him with the Romantics. Jean-Antoine Gros said of him: He will bestride the two centuries with his seven league boots.
Though Prud'hon chose the same ‘antique’ subjects as the neoclassicists, his sensitive handling of color and composition are an overpass to Romanticism. He had a neurotic personality and the shock of the suicide of his mistress and pupil Constance Mayer in 1821 led to his own death. The artist died in Paris on February 16, 1823.