Self-portrait in his room at the Villa Medici (1817)

Léon Cogniet: Self-portrait in his room at the Villa Medici

Cogniet (1794-1880) was born in Paris. In 1812, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied under Pierre-Narcisse Guérin at the same time as Delacroix and Géricault. In 1817 he won the Prix de Rome and was a resident at the Villa Medici from 1817 to 1822. He decorated several ceilings in the Louvre and the Halle de Godiaque in the Hôtel de Ville, Paris, and a chapel in the church of Madeleine. At first he painted in classical style, but later adopted the methods of the Romanticists. [Wikipedia]