Georges Rochegrosse

Georges Antoine Rochegrosse (1859-1938) was a French historical and decorative painter. He was born in Versailles and studied in Paris with Jules Joseph Lefebvre and Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger. His themes are generally historical, and he treated them on a colossal scale and in an emotional naturalistic style, with a distinct revelling in horrible subjects and details.

He made his Paris Salon début in 1882 with Vitellis traîné dans les rues de Rome par la populace (Vitellius dragged through the streets of Rome by the people). He followed this the year afterwards with Andromaque (1882–1883 Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen), which won that year’s prestigious Prix du Salon. There followed La Jacquerie, Le mort de Babylone, The death of the Emperor Geta, and Barbarian ambassadors at the Court of Justinian, all of which exemplify his strong and spirited but sensational and often brutal painting.