Léon Bonnat

Academic painter Léon Bonnat (1833-1922) was one of France's leading portrait painters and an influential teacher. Born in Bayonne, he lived in Madrid from 1846-1853, where his father owned a bookshop. While tending the shop, he copied engravings of Old Masters, developing his passion for Spanish realism. He studied under Federico Madrazo in Madrid and Léon Cogniet in Paris, spending three years in Rome on a scholarship from his native Bayonne.

Bonnat's many portraits show the influence of Velázquez, Ribera, and other Spanish masters whose works he studied at the Prado. Théophile Gautier hailed him as "the antithesis of Bouguereau" for his stark naturalism and lack of surface finish. His subjects included Victor Hugo, Louis Pasteur, and other prominent Europeans and Americans. A liberal teacher who stressed simplicity above academic finish, he trained Thomas Eakins, Gustave Caillebotte, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He became professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1882 and its director in 1905. In gratitude for early support, he built the Musée Bonnat in Bayonne, housing his exceptional collection of Old Master drawings from Leonardo and Michelangelo to Ingres. Works hang at the Musée d'Orsay and the Metropolitan Museum.