A great French painter, born at Montauban; studied in Paris; in 1806 went to Rome, and 14 years after to Florence, but became professor of Fine Arts at the Academy in Paris in 1824; wounded by hostile criticisms he left Paris for Rome again in 1834, where he became Director of the French Academy in Rome; in 1841 he returned to Paris, where he died; he followed his master David in his choice of classical subjects, but his work met with varied reception, now favourable, now the reverse; the "Portrait of Cherubini," and other pictures, however, won for him great admiration in his later days; he was made a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour (1781-1867).