Sébastien CORNU (1804 -1870)- Portrait of général Charon

Sébastien Cornu, born in Lyon in 1796, was a painter of classical academicism, trained at the École des Beaux-Arts de Lyon under Fleury Richard, where he won first prize in painting in 1820. After graduating, he went to Paris to work with Ingres, perfecting his style, which was strongly influenced by Antiquity and the Renaissance. Cornu then continued his studies in Rome, where he became a pupil of Claude Bonnefond, while nurturing a passion for travel, particularly in the Orient, before settling permanently in Paris.

His early artistic career took place between Lyon and Paris, where he exhibited various paintings between 1826 and 1828. He made his first appearance at the Paris Salon in 1831 with his painting Une Bacchante, marking his entry into the Parisian art scene. His works, although technically mastered and conforming to the academic style of the time, often lack character and emotion, being more clinically precise than passionate. He painted a wide variety of subjects: official portraits, religious scenes, genre scenes, as well as historical, mythological and military subjects, always in a classical style, faithful to the rigor of academic traditions.

In 1857, he was commissioned to paint murals for the church of Saint-Séverin in Paris. He continued to take an active part in the art scene and, in 1862, was appointed director of the Campana Collection, a collection of ancient art that he had helped to negotiate and which, after its acquisition, became part of the Musée du Louvre. After the death of the artist Hippolyte Flandrin in 1864, Cornu completed La Transfiguration, a fresco commissioned for the north transept of the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and continued decorating the chapel of Saint-François-Xavier.

One of his last major works was a late-career depiction of Baron Viala Charon, a French general and politician. Viala Charon had been Governor General of Algeria and awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1857, an act immortalized in Cornu's portrait. This type of subject, combining the great historical and military figures of the time, is characteristic of the orientation of his work towards the celebration of figures of power and national greatness.

Cornu's career is thus characterized by his adherence to the principles of academic art, his meticulous work on realistic representation and his ability to illustrate significant events in history, while remaining faithful to the classical canons of his time.