Study for a figure of Fame, from the Hémicycle des Beaux-Arts, École des Beaux-Arts
ca. 1837–41
Medium
Watercolor and gouache over black chalk
Dimensions
Sheet: 17 11/16 × 10 13/16 in. (45 × 27.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Guy Wildenstein Gift, 2013
Accession Number
2013.62
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the grand tradition of 19th-century French academic art, Paul Delar's *Study for a figure of, from the Hémicycle des Be-Arts, École Beaux-Arts* (ca. 1837–41) captures the preparatory brilliance behind one of Paris's most iconic murals. Delaroche, a leading Romantic history painter renowned for his dramatic, theatrical scenes blending idealism with realism, was commissioned to decorate the hemicycle auditorium at the École des Beaux-Ar. This expansive fresco honors 75 great artists from antiquity to the Renaissance, with allegorical figures like Fame crowning the composition, symbolizing ete...