Edouard Dantan A Casting From Life Painting by Paul Meijering

About "Edouard Dantan A Casting From Life Painting"

by Paul Meijering

About the artwork

Realistic acrylic painting of Edouard Joseph Dantan with his painting A Casting From Life, painted by the Dutch fine artist Paul Meijering - the original painting is 120 x 90 cm and available for purchase.

Édouard Joseph Dantan (Paris 26 August 1848 – 7 July 1897) was a French painter in the classical tradition. He was widely recognized in his day, although he was subsequently eclipsed by painters with more modern styles.

Édouard Joseph Dantan was born on 26 August 1848 in Paris. His grandfather, who had fought in the Napoleonic Wars, was a wood sculptor. His father, Antoine Laurent Dantan, and uncle, Jean-Pierre Dantan, were both well-known sculptors. Dantan was a pupil of Isidore Pils and Henri Lehmann at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. At the age of nineteen he won a commission for a large mural painting of The Holy Trinity for the Hospice Brezin at Marne (Seine-et-Oise). Dantan's first exhibit at the Paris Salon was An Episode in the Destruction of Pompeii in 1869. In 1870 the Franco-Prussian War interrupted his work, and he enlisted in the defence force. He was given the rank of a sergeant, and was later promoted to lieutenant. During the war the family home was burned down.

In the years after the war Dantan exhibited a number of other paintings at the Salon including Hercules at the Feet of Omphale (1871), Death of Tusaphane (1875), The Nymph Salmacis (1876), Priam Demanding of Achillees the Body of Hector (1877), Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew (1878), Corner of a Studio (1880) and The Breakfast of the Model (1881). He continued to exhibit at the Salon until 1895. In 1890, 1894 and 1895 he served on the jury of the Salon.

For twelve years Dantan's companion was the model Agostina Segatori, who had also posed for artists such as Jean-Baptiste Corot, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Eugène Delacroix and Édouard Manet. She bore a child to Dantan, Jean-Pierre, in 1873. On their separation, Agostina opened Café du Tambourin on the Boulevard de Clichy that became a meeting place for artists. Dantan spent his summers in Villerville, where he died on 9 July 1897 when the carriage in which he was riding crashed violently into the village church.