1828 -1891 · Nantes, Paris, Rome and large public settings

Psychological portrait, monumental painting and Italian clarity make Jules-Élie Delaunay a scholarly renovator of the French tradition.

Jules-Élie Delaunay was born in Nantes in 1828. At the Paris School of Fine Arts, he studied with Hippolyte Flandrin and Louis Lamothe, heirs of Ingres, and began at the Salon in 1853. Winner of the Prix de Rome in 1856, he stayed at the Villa Medici and deepened the study of Raphael, Italian primitives and monumental decor. The Plague in Rome, presented in 1869, combined archeology, dramatic movement and strange funeral poetry. Delaunay then received important commissions for the Paris Opera, the Trinity Church, the Pantheon and various public buildings. At the same time, he became a sought-after portrait painter. His effigies of relatives, children, artists and figures of the bourgeoisie are distinguished by precise observation, a sober palette and a strong interiority. Christ on the cross and Diana show the extent of his repertoire between religion, mythology and study of the body. Professor at the School of Fine Arts and member of the Institute, Delaunay unites the Ingresque discipline with a freer color and a modern sense of character. The "Jules-Élie Delaunay" selection notably compares Christ on the cross and Diana. His reading favors drawing.

Delaunay gives the grand decor the precision of a drawing and the monumental portrait the discretion of a confidence.