Alexandre Cabanel, September 28, 1823 – January 23, 1889, was a French painter and teacher. Born in Montpellier, he first studied at the city’s free drawing school and moved to Paris in 1839 on a municipal scholarship. From 1840 he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in the studio of François-Édouard Picot. In 1845 he received the second first Prix de Rome and was a resident at the Villa Medici in Rome until 1850.

Cabanel returned to Paris in 1850 and worked on history, religious, mythological, decorative, and portrait paintings. He received commissions from Napoleon III and produced decorations for public buildings and Paris residences. From 1863, following the reform of the École des Beaux-Arts, he directed one of its three painting studios. He taught several hundred students, including Aristide Maillol, Jules Bastien-Lepage, Eugène Carrière, Henri Regnault, and Ernest Michel.

The Musée Fabre holds the largest group of Cabanel’s works, including about fifty paintings and nearly two hundred drawings. His works are also held by the Musée d’Orsay, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Princeton University Art Museum, the Petit Palais, and the Château de Compiègne

Self-Portrait, 1852
Oil on canvas, 23.8 × 18.3 in
Musée Fabre, Montpellier

The Fallen Angel, 1847
Oil on canvas, 47.6 × 74.8 in
Musée Fabre, Montpellier

Albaydé, 1848
Oil on canvas, 38.6 × 31.5 in
Musée Fabre, Montpellier

The Roman Monk, 1848
Oil on canvas, 36 × 28.5 in
Musée Fabre, Montpellier

The Death of Moses, 1850
Oil on canvas, 55.1 × 80.3 in
Musée Fabre, Montpellier

The Chapel Master's Widow, 1859
Oil on canvas, 30.3 × 43.3 in
Petit Palais, Museum of Fine Arts of the City of Paris

Petrarch's Laura, c 1861
Oil on canvas, 35.4 × 23.1 in
Princeton University Art Museum

The Birth of Venus, 1863
Oil on canvas, 51.2 × 88.6 in
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Napoleon III, c 1865
Oil on canvas, 90.6 × 67.3 in
Château de Compiègne, France

Death of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, 1870
Oil on canvas, 72.4 × 100.4 in
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Echo, 1874
Oil on canvas, 38.5 × 26.3 in
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Samson and Delilah, 1878
Oil on canvas, 36.5 × 25.5 in
Private Collection

Phaedra, 1880
Oil on canvas, 10.8 × 18.1 in
Petit Palais, Museum of Fine Arts of the City of Paris

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