Hippolyte de la Roche, known as Paul Delaroche, born July 17, 1797 in Paris where he died November 4, 1856, is a French painter. Paul Delaroche comes from a wealthy family, his father is an expert in paintings. The young man became a student of Louis Étienne Watelet then of Antoine-Jean Gros. He exhibited for the first time at the Salon of 1822 and attracted the attention of Géricault. It only began to be noticed at the salon of 1824 where Saint Vincent de Paul preaching for foundlings and Joan of Arc in her prison were exhibited. Over the course of his exhibitions, he became known for being the initiator of the “historical anecdote”, a genre with a documentary vocation and dramatic sensitivity which was very successful and which is in the vein of history painting. If Paul Delaroche is one of the most famous painters of his time, it is largely due to the fact that the genre in which he made a specialty perfectly suits the ideal of the artistic movement of the "golden mean" of July Monarchy. In the following years he exhibited: The Death of Elisabeth, Miss MacDonald rescuing the Suitor, The Children of Edward (1830), one of his most popular paintings, Richelieu dragging his prisoners across the Rhône, Mazarin dying, Strafford marching to execution, Charles I insulted by Cromwell's soldiers, Cromwell looking at the corpse of Charles I, The Torment of Jane Gray (1833), The Assassination of the Duke of Guise. He was admitted to the Institut de France in 1832, where he was then the youngest member. Shortly after, he was appointed professor at the Paris School of Fine Arts, where he taught until 1843, when a tragic hazing, which caused the death of a student, forced him to close his studio. . From 1837, he stopped exhibiting, but continued to work tirelessly: he took four years to complete the fresco of L'Hémicycle des Beaux-Arts in the amphitheater of the School in 1841, a panoramic view which brings together 75 figures from the greatest artists of all eras. Among his other works, we note Bonaparte crossing the Alps, Napoleon at Saint Helena, Marie-Antoinette after his conviction, La Cenci marching to execution, The Last Farewell of the Girondins, and several religious subjects: Moses exposed on the Nile, Christ in Gethsemani, Christ on the cross, Christ of the afflicted, The Burial of Christ, The Virgin at the foot of the cross, The Virgin among the holy women, The Virgin in contemplation before the crown of thorns, a Young martyr. Paul Delaroche also painted for the Versailles museum: The Baptism of Clovis, The Coronation of Pépin, Charlemagne's Passage of the Alps and his Coronation in Rome. He executed a large number of portraits, including those of Guizot, Lamartine, Salvandy, Rémusat and Thiers. The Munich School was inspired by his history painting. He also influenced painters like Fritz Zuber-Bühler. After seeing a daguerreotype for the first time he prophesied, according to Gaston Tissandier: “From today onwards painting is dead. » However, this quote, undoubtedly apocryphal, is contested by Stephen Bann, for whom there is no more rehashed and more fallacious phrase Type: Drawing Material: Pencil Characteristics: Signed Theme: Character