caption death_date death_place birth_place imagesize field birth_date image article_title name
self-portrait 23 march 1921 paris , france fourquevaux , france 230px painting 28 march 1838 laurens _ - _ self portrait.jpg jean-paul laurens
 jean-paul laurens
jean-paul laurens

jean-paul laurens -lrb- fourquevaux 28 march 1838 -- 23 march 1921 paris -rrb- , was a french painter and sculptor , and one of the last major exponents of the french academic style .
he was a pupil of léon cogniet and alexandre bida .
strongly anti-clerical and republican , his work was often on historical and religious themes , through which he sought to convey a message of opposition to monarchical and clerical oppression .
his erudition and technical mastery were much admired in his time , but in later years his highly realistic technique , coupled to a theatrical `` mise-en-scène '' , came to be regarded by some art-historians as overly didactic .
more recently , however , his work has been re-evaluated as an important and original renewal of history painting , a genre of painting that was in decline during laurens ' lifetime .
laurens was commissioned to paint numerous public works by the french third republic , including the steel vault of the paris city hall , the monumental series on the life of saint genevieve in the apse of the panthéon , the decorated ceiling of the odéon theater , and the hall of distinguished citizens at the toulouse capitol .
he also provided illustrations for augustin thierry 's `` récits des temps mérovingiens '' -lrb- `` accounts of merovingian times '' -rrb- .
laurens was highly respected teacher at the académie julian , paris , and a professor at the '' École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts '' in paris , where he taught andré dunoyer de segonzac and george barbier .
two of his sons , paul albert laurens -lrb- 1870 -- 1934 -rrb- and jean-pierre laurens -lrb- 1875 -- 1932 -rrb- , both also became painters and teachers at the académie julian .
