Fernand Cormon

Fernand Cormon (december 24 1845 - March 20 1924) was a French painter. He became a pupil of Cabanel, Fromentin and Jean Portaels, and one of the leading historical painters of modern France. Cormon was born in Paris.

At an early age he attracted attention for the perceived sensationalism in his art, although for a time his powerful brush dwelled with particular delight on scenes of bloodshed, such as the "Murder in the Seraglio" (1868) and the "Death of Ravara, Queen of Lanka" at the Toulouse Museum. The Musée d'Orsay has his "Cain flying before Jehovah's Curse"; and for the Mairie of the fourth arrondissement of Paris he executed in grisaille a series of panels: "Birth, Death, Marriage, War", etc. "A Chiefs Funeral", and pictures having the Stone Age for their subject, occupied him for several years. He was appointed to the Legion of Honor in 1880. Subsequently he also devoted himself to portraiture.

References

*1911