  alexandre cabanel (; 28 september 1823 â 23 january 1889) was a french painter born in montpellier, hÃ©rault. he painted historical, classical and religious subjects in the academic style. he was also well known as a portrait painter. according to diccionario enciclopedico salvat, cabanel is the best representative of the l'art pompier and napoleon iii's preferred painter.diccionario enciclopedico salvat, 1982, barcelona he entered the Ãcole des beaux-arts in paris at the age of seventeen. cabanel studied with franÃ§ois-Ãdouard picot. he exhibited at the paris salon for the first time in 1844, and won the prix de rome scholarship in 1845 at the age of twenty two. cabanel was elected a member of the institute in 1863. he was appointed professor at the Ãcole des beaux-arts in 1864 and taught there until his death. cabanel won the grande mÃ©daille d'honneur at the salons of 1865, 1867, and 1878. he was closely connected to the paris salon: "he was elected regularly to the salon jury and his pupils could be counted by the hundred at the salons. through them, cabanel did more than any other artist of his generation to form the character of belle Ã©poque french painting".dictionary of art (1996) vol. 5, pp. 341â344 his refusal together with william-adolphe bouguereau to allow the impressionist painter Ãdouard manet and many other painters to exhibit their work in the salon of 1863 led to the establishment of the salon des refusÃ©s by the french government. a successful academic painter, his 1863 painting the birth of venus is one of the best known examples of 19th-century academic painting. the picture was bought by the emperor napoleon iii; there is also a smaller replica (painted in 1875 for a banker, john wol
1823_births 1889_deaths 19th-century_French_painters Academic_art Faculty_of_the_Acole_des_Beaux-Arts French_neoclassical_painters French_romantic_painters Members_of_the_AcadA(c)mie_des_beaux-arts People_from_Montpellier Prix_de_Rome_for_painting