Alexandre Cabanel was born September 28, 1823, in the French city Montpellier and died January 23, 1889, in Paris, France. He was interested in art from a young age and furthered his studies in it when he was 17 years old, at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he also taught. He was a well-known Academic painter and art teacher of his time; he reportedly had hundreds of students. His first exhibition was at the Paris Salon in 1844 and he continued to be involved in the Salon, becoming one of the juries. In the years 1865, 1867, and1878 he was awarded the Grande Médaille d’Honneur and won a scholarship to Prix de Rome in the 1840s. His style of painting ranged from portraits to the historical, classical, and religious subject matter.