Biography
Jules Joseph Lefebvre (14 March 1836 – 24 February 1911) was a French painter, educator and theorist.
Lefebvre was born in Tournan-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne. He entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1852 and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet. 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. His paintings include single figures as well as historical and literary scenes. 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 was 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, Félix Vallotton, Ernst Friedrich von Liphart, Georges Rochegrosse, the Scottish-born landscape painter William Hart, Walter Lofthouse Dean, and Edmund C. Tarbell, who became an American Impressionist painter. Another pupil was the miniaturist Alice Beckington. Jules Benoit-Lévy entered his workshop at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts.
Lefebvre died in Paris on 24 February 1911 and was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery with a bas-relief depiction of his painting La Vérité on his grave.
Nationality:
French
Dates:
March 14, 1836 – February 24, 1911
Occupation:
Painter
Schools attended:
École des Beaux-Arts
Taught at:
Académie Julian
Student of:
Leon Cogniet
Teacher of:
Fernand Khnopff, Kenyon Cox, Félix Vallotton, Ernst Friedrich von Liphart, Georges Rochegrosse, William Hart, Walter Lofthouse Dean, Edmund C. Tarbell, Alice Beckington, Jules Benoit-Lévy