ABOUT THE WORK
Jules-Eugène Lenepveu gives a striking academic painting of the male athlete with stick. Taking the Greco-Roman ideal and translating through the eyes of his century. The model was a “day laborer,” and a frequent model for the various academies in town. He was loved by artists of the time for his physique, eyes, and red hair. Model was from northern France. He later left Paris with his wife and five sons and bought a boat and became a fishermen with his family.
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born with the formal name of Jules-Eugène Lenepveu Boussaroque de Lafont, known as Jules-Eugène Lenepveu (1819 – 16 October 1898, Paris) was a very successful and loved French painter and sculptor. He became very famous for his vast historical canvases with passionate themes, including the ceilings of the Opéra national de Paris (Opéra de Paris or Paris Opera) (1869–71; later covered by a Marc Chagall work), and of the main theatre at Angers (1871). He was a creative director of the French Academy in Rome from the years of 1873 to 1878. In that five-year span, he and his creative team accomplished a lot and was given much professional and peer praise. He also was a successful teacher during those years, with a classes that had waiting lists to take part of and draw.