Regnault, Jean Baptiste, Baron

PAINTER (FRANCE)
BORN 9 Oct 1754, Paris - DIED 12 Nov 1829, Paris: Ancien 10e
GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Père Lachaise, Rue du Repos 16 (division 36, ligne 01 (M: N 34))

Jean-Baptiste Regnault copied drawings that were lent to him by the collector Bataille de Montval at the age of ten. After his father decided to travel to Africa with the family he became a cabin boy for long-distance captain for five years. After that he was returned to his mother who was now widowed. In Paris he studied with Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié, Joseph-Marie Vien and Jean Bardin. He travelled to Rome with Bardin. He won the Grand Prix de Rome for his painting "Diogenes visited by Alexander" and this enabled him to stay at the Mancini Palace in Rome in 1776, together with Jacques-Louis David and Pierre Peyron. In Rome he created "The Baptism of Christ" (1779, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon).

In 1783 he became a member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. He successfully exhibited "The Education of Achilles by the Centaur Chiron" (1782, Louvre, Paris) at the Salon. He married the painter Sophie Meyer in 1786. They had three sons. In 1787 when he lived at the Cour du Commerce in Paris and he introducedd the young Constance-Marie Bondelu to painting. Inspired by the French Revolution he exhibited "Liberty or Death" (1795) at the Salon. During the First Empire he painted large scenes from antiquity.

In 1807 he became a professor at the École des beaux-arts de Paris. Ingres would succeed him there in 1829. In 1809 he ended his official career and and no longer exhibited at the Salon. From 1816 to 1822 he was taught drawing at the École Polytechnique. In 1829 he became a Baron and later that year he died in Paris. He was buried at the Père Lachaise cemetery.

Family
• Wife: Regnault, Sophie (1786-)

Related persons
• was teacher of Bouchot, François
• was teacher of Hersent, Louis
• was teacher of Lefèvre, Robert
• was teacher of Wächter, Eberhard von

Images

The grave of Jean Baptiste Regnault at Père Lachaise, Paris.
Picture by Androom (02 Nov 2019)

 

Sources
• Gabrielli, Domenico, Dictionnaire Historique du Père-Lachaise, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles, Éditions de l'Amateur, Les, Paris, 2002
Winkler Prins Encyclopedie (editie 1909), 1909
Jean-Baptiste Regnault - Wikipédia


Regnault, Sophie

Published: 23 Nov 2023
Last update: 23 Nov 2023