Alexandre Cabanel (1823-1889) was an accomplished French Academic painter and art instructor. He was educated in Paris, won the Prix de Rome in 1845, and became famous in the 1860s after his prize-winning submission to the Salon was purchased by the Emperor of France. He was a highly accomplished portraitist and teacher at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Not only was Cabanel an accomplished artist in his own right, but as a popular and successful teacher, he had a momentous impact through his pupils in the last generations of Neoclassicism.
Here is his portrayal of Ophelia (1883), the tragic character of Shakespeare's Hamlet. She was a popular motif among artists of Cabanel's generation.
This is Cabanel's The Death of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta (1870). This historical couple loved secretly (and adulterously) in 13th Century Ravenna before their murder by the wife's outraged husband. Their affair became an icon of romantic love, featured in numerous artistic and literary endeavors, including Dante's Divine Comedy.
Like any good Neoclassicist, Cabanel also painted extensively from Classical subject matter, such as Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners (1887). The Cleopatra theme was popular among the Italian and French Academics.
UPDATE: Date added to the Cleopatra painting.
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