Venus

🖼️ Artwork Title: Venus

🆔 ID Code: P104
👉 Derivative Type: High-quality canvas print
💥 Size: 60cm × 93.5cm
🎯 Delivered Product: Canvas print (frame not included)

🎨 About the Artist: Alexandre Cabanel (1823–1889)

A Master of French Academic Art

Alexandre Cabanel was a renowned 19th-century French painter, regarded as one of the foremost figures of Academic Art and a staunch defender of classical artistic traditions in France.

📍 Biography & Career

• Born on September 28, 1823, in Montpellier, France.

• At the age of 11, he began his formal art education at the School of Fine Arts in Montpellier.

• In 1839, he moved to Paris to study at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, under the guidance of the painter François-Édouard Picot.

• In 1845, he won the coveted Prix de Rome, granting him the opportunity to study at the French Academy in Rome, where he immersed himself in the art of the Italian Renaissance.

🎨 Artistic Style

Cabanel was a quintessential representative of Academic Art, a style characterized by flawless technique, historical and mythological themes, and religious subjects.

He was especially admired for his idealized beauty, graceful portrayals of the human form, and soft, romantic lighting that infused his works with both sensuality and mysticism.

As a master portraitist, Cabanel was a favorite among the European aristocracy and royalty—most notably Emperor Napoleon III, who commissioned several of his works.

🖼️ Notable Works

• The Birth of Venus (1863) – Cabanel’s most iconic painting, portraying the goddess Venus floating sensually upon the sea.

• Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners (1887) – A dramatic historical composition rich in psychological tension.

• Portrait of Empress Eugénie (1864) – A famous and elegant portrait of Napoleon III’s wife.

• Ophelia (1883) – Inspired by the tragic character from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, rendered with emotional depth and grace.

🕊️ Influence & Legacy

Cabanel became a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he mentored a new generation of artists, including Henri Gervex and Jules Bastien-Lepage.

He enjoyed immense popularity among the European elite, though he was criticized by Impressionist painters for his academic rigidity and conservative ideals.

While his style began to lose popularity towards the end of the 19th century—due to the rise of Impressionism and Modernism—Cabanel is still remembered as a master of technique and idealized beauty.