This work is SOLD - Presented in a period giltwood frame. Cabanel was a rival of William-Adolphe Bouguereau. His students include: Aristide Maillol and Henri Le Sidaner. His One of the most distinguished European history painters of the 19th century, Alexandre Cabanel code s work displays an ever-present tension between his classical training and theatrical tendencies. Combined with the characteristic display of the Second Empire \\u002Fcode s romantic eclecticism, the master code s virtuoso brushwork, so brilliantly presented here are the quintessential academic qualities that led him to become a leading representative of the Paris Salon and Napoleon III \\u002Fcode s preferred artist. br As a student at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Cabanel studied under Francois Edouard Picot, a pupil of the proponent of the French Revolution and famed Neoclassicist, Jacques-Louis David. At the Academy, students spent a significant part of their time learning potential subject matter from classical texts and literature. In reference to his time at the academy, Alexis Lemaistre wrote: “Every page of Sophocles or Homer could literally be translated into a tableau; the difficulty lie in knowing which to choose.” Despite praise garnered by The Birth of Venus, a composition presently in the permanent collection of the Musee d code Orsay, Paris (and originally acquired for the private collection of Napoleon III), it was theater that inspired Cabanel \\u002Fcode s greatest work.