Gustave Boulanger (1824-1888) was a French academic artist and figurative painter whose work epitomised the polish and grandeur of the Paris Salon. A student of Paul Delaroche and later a close associate of Jean-Léon Gérôme, Boulanger built his reputation on thoroughly researched scenes drawn from antiquity. This included depictions of Roman domestic life, Greek mythology and the world of the ancient stage. He paid careful attention to costume and setting, but his paintings are also enlivened by a certain theatricality.
On his birthday, we present five paintings offer a window into the mind of an artist who was, in his own time, among the most celebrated in France.
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Galatea and the Shepherd Acis (1848)
2. Rehearsal of “The Flute Player” and “Wife of Diomedes” at the Place of Prince Napoléon (1861)
3. Sacrifice to Pan (1869)
4. A promenade in the Street of the Tombs, Pompeii (1869)
5. Mother of the Gracchi (1885)
