Jules Joseph Lefebvre (; 14 March 183624 February 1911) was a French painter, educator and theorist.
Early life Lefebvre was born in Tournan-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, on 14 March 1836. He entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1852 and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet.
Career
He won the prestigious Prix de Rome with his The Death of Priam in 1861. Between 1855 and 1898, he exhibited 72 portraits in the Paris Salon. Many of his paintings are single figures of beautiful women. Among the portraits of his considered the best were those of M. L. Reynaud and the Prince Imperial (1874). In 1891, he became a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts.
He was professor at the Académie Julian in Paris. Lefebvre is chiefly important as an excellent and sympathetic teacher who numbered many Americans among his 1500 or more pupils. Among his famous students were Fernand Khnopff, Kenyon Cox,Oxford Art Online, "Lefebvre, Jules" Félix Vallotton, Ernst Friedrich von Liphart,Baron Ernst Friedrich von Liphart, Late 19th Century – 19th Century – Russian Artists – Biographies – RusArtNet.com Georges Rochegrosse,Waller, S. (ed.), Foreign Artists and Communities in Modern Paris, 1870–1914: Strangers in Paradise, Routledge, 2017, p. 119 the Scottish-born landscape painter William Hart, Walter Lofthouse Dean, and Edmund C. Tarbell, who became an US Impressionist painter.Kathleen Luhrs, American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980: "... on to Paris and studied for a year at the Académie Julian under Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre." Another pupil was the miniaturist Alice Beckington, as was Laura Leroux-Revault, the daughter of his friend Louis Hector Leroux. Jules Benoit-Lévy entered his workshop at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts."Benoit-Lévy, Jules (1866–1925), Painter, draughtsman, illustrator" , Benezit Dictionary of Artists
Lefebvre died in Paris on 24 February 1911 and was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery with a bas-relief depiction of his painting The Truth on his grave.
Significant milestones
1853 Student at the École des Beaux-Arts 1859 Second place Prix de Rome 1861 His The Death of Priam wins the Prix de Rome 1870 Académie Julian professor 1870 Officer in the Legion of Honour (called 'Commander' from 1898) 1891 Member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts
Selected works
Undated works
Clémence Isaure Fleurs des Champs Wounded Love La Fiancée Mediterranean Beauty Nymph with Morning Glory Flowers Portrait of a Lady Portrait of a Woman The Sorrow of Mary Magdalene Woman with an Orange Young Woman with Morning Glories in Her Hair
See also Samantha Littlefield Huntley, one of his students Angèle Delasalle, a student at Académie Julian
Notes
References
External links
TheARTwerx – Lefebvre Gallery: Comprehensive archive of 141 images Jules-Joseph-Lefebvre.org: 42 images by Jules Joseph Lefebvre Art Renewal Centre – Lefebvre Gallery Jules Joseph Lefebvre, paintingiant.com