French painter, who traveled widely in Italy, Spain, and Morocco. In 1866, he won the Prix de Rome with a work of unusual force and distinction Thetis bringing the Arms forged by Vulcan to Achilles.
He painted portraits, subjects inspired by French history, and scenes from life. He was killed in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871).
This painting represents a scene from Homer’s Iliad.
This unfinished study shows the influence of Vel�zquez, whose works the painter studied during his stay in Madrid in 1868.
This painting reflects the artist’s fascination with Granada’s Alhambra Palace, as well as his morbid predilection (here using a historical pretext, taken to an extreme) for severed heads. The crimson blood splashed on the steps, the decapitated body, and the severed head itself impressed an enthusiastic Th�ophile Gautier with their realism, which he imagined to have been studied at first hand in Morocco.
