Léon Bonnat

Léon Bonnat, self-portrait.

Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat (20 June 1833 - September 8, 1922) was a French painter.

He was born in Bayonne, and educated under Madrazo in Madrid, Spain. He lived in Madrid from 1846 to 1853, where his father owned a bookshop. He later worked in Paris, where he became known as a leading portraitist. His long series of portraits shows the influence of Velázquez and the Spanish realists. He won a medal of honor at Paris in 1869, where he became one of the leading artists of his day. Bonnat went on to become a professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1888. In May 1905 he succeeded Paul Dubois as director.

His vivid portrait-painting is his most characteristic work, but his subject pictures, such as the Martyrdom of St Denis in the Pantheon, are also famous.

Some of Bonnat's more notable students include: Gustave Caillebotte, Suzor-Coté, Georges Braque, Aloysius O'Kelly, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)