 Léon Bonnat: "Autoportrait". |
| Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat (20 June 1833 – September 8, 1922)
was a French painter. He was born in Bayonne, and educated under
Madrazo in Madrid, Spain. He lived in Madrid from 1846 to 1853,
where his father owned a bookshop. He later worked in Paris, where he
became known as a leading portraitist. His long series of portraits
shows the influence of Velázquez and the Spanish realists. He won a
medal of honor at Paris in 1869, where he became one of the leading
artists of his day. Bonnat went on to become a professor at the
Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1882. In May 1905 he succeeded Paul Dubois
as director.
His vivid portrait-painting is his most characteristic work, but his subject pictures, such as the Martyrdom of St Denis in the Pantheon, are also famous. He earned a considerable fortune which allowed him to amass a large collection and valuable art collection that was later donated to his home city of Bayonne. Now the Musée Bonnat in Bayonne. Some of Bonnat's students include: Gustave Caillebotte,
Suzor-Coté, Georges Braque, Aloysius O'Kelly, Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec, Václav Brožík, Josef Jelínek, Thomas Eakins, Othon
Friesz and Raoul Dufy.
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