Paul Delaroche

French painter, known for the Hémicycle mural (1841), a 27-metre-(88.5 ft)-long Raphaelesque tableau in the hemicycle of the award theatre of the École des Beaux Arts, Paris. He was trained by Antoine-Jean, Baron Gros, a painter of life-size historical subjects who had many students. The first Delaroche picture exhibited was the large Jehosheba saving Joash (1822). This exhibition led to his acquaintance with Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix, with whom he formed the core of a large group of Parisian historical painters. He visited Italy in 1838 and 1843, when his father-in-law, Horace Vernet, was director of the French Academy in Rome. In 1845, he was elected into the National Academy of Design, New York, as an Honorary Academician. Among his students were British landscape artist Henry Mark Anthony, British history painters Edward Armitage and Charles Lucy, and American painter/photographer Alfred Boisseau (1823–1901). Delaroche's love for Horace Vernet's daughter Louise was the absorbing passion of his life. He married Louise in 1835, in which year he also exhibited Head of an Angel, which was based on a study of her. It is said that Delaroche never recovered from the shock of her death in 1845 at the age of 31. He died on 4 November 1856 in Paris. Link to Wikipedia biography