Michel Martin Drolling

Michel Martin Drolling studied at Beaux-Arts de Paris and French Academy in Rome. Training under Martin Drolling and Jacques-Louis David is recorded. Jean-Jacques Henner, Charles Joshua Chaplin and Jules Emmanuel Valadon are recorded as having studied under Michel Martin Drolling. The recorded working language is French. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Places of work recorded in the authority are Rome and Paris. Works named in the authority record are View of the Gardens of Villa Medici. Work by Michel Martin Drolling is recorded in the collections of Nationalmuseum, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, Heckscher Museum of Art, Musée Carnavalet and Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris. Distinctions recorded are Prix de Rome.

• Name — Michel Martin Drolling • Occupation — Painter • Birthplace — Paris, France • Place of death — Paris, France • Born — 7 March 1786 • Died — 9 January 1851 • Father — Martin Drolling • Relatives — Louise-Adéone Drölling (sister)

He was born in Paris. There, he began painting under the supervision of his father, the painter Martin Drolling. After 1806, he studied with Jacques-Louis David. He won the Prix de Rome in 1810 for The Wrath of Achilles. After having worked at the French Academy in Rome, he became known for the Death of Abel, exhibited at the Salon of 1817. Consequently, he received many orders and produced, notably, The Lord Descends to Earth to Establish his Empire and Spread his Good Deeds for the ceiling of the room of Illustrious Men at the Louvre, The States-General of Tours in 1836 and The Convention of Alexandria in 1837, both for the museum of history in the Palace of Versailles and Jesus Among the Doctors for the Church of Our-Lady-of-Loretto in Paris in 1840. He was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1837 and was later named a Professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He died in Paris in 1851. His paintings of history follow the spirit of the time: theatricality combined with bright colours, contrast of lights and precision of detail. His most important pupils include Paul Baudry, Victor Biennourry, Jules Breton, Theodor Aman, Roger Fenton, Alfred de Curzon, Charles Joshua Chaplin, Pierre-Victor Galland, Jean-Jacques Henner, Cornelius Krieghoff, Armand Laroche, Alphonse Muraton, Charles Nègre, John Charles Robinson, Jules-Émile Saintin, Théophile Schuler and William Strutt.

• Illustration — Head of Christ (study) • Illustration — The Wrath of Achilles (1810) • Illustration — Portrait of the artist (1819) • Illustration — Orpheus and Eurydice (1820) • Illustration — Official Portrait of Emperor Napoleon I (1808) • Illustration — Signing of the Convention of Alexandria • Illustration — Agamemnon watching as Achilles presents the prize of wisdom to Nestor during the funeral games, Mougins Museum of Classical Art