Bonnat, LÉON JOSEPH FLORENTIN

Bonnat, LÉON JOSEPH FLORENTIN, was born at Bayonne (1833), and studied at Madrid under Frederic Madrazo, and in Paris under Léon Cogniet. He gained the second Grand Prix de Rome, and, aided by his friends, went to Italy in 1858, where he resided for four years. He was first brought into notice by his 'Adam and Eve finding the Body of Abel' (1860), now in the gallery at Lille; and his 'Pasqua Maria' (1863) was much praised. He devoted himself to Italian genre pictures of moderate size, varied by such religious subjects as 'The Assumption' (1869), and the terribly realistic 'Christ on the Cross' (1874), commissioned for the Palais de Justice, Paris. He has produced many remarkable portraits, among others those of M. Thiers, Victor Hugo, Grevy, Pasteur, Dumas, Carnot, and Renan.