Louis Hersent

Louis Hersent (Paris 10 March 1777 – 2 October 1860) was a French painter.

He became a pupil of David, and obtained the Prix de Rome in 1797. In the Salon of 1802 he showed "Metamorphosis of Narcissus", and he continued to exhibit with rare interruptions up to 1831. He married Louise-Marie-Jeanne Mauduit in 1821. His pupils were Louis-Eugène Bertier, Auguste Bigand, Hélène Charlotte Juliette Bourge, Augustin Luc Demoussy, Henri Joseph Constant Dutilleux, Hippolyte Dominique Holfeld, Jean-Francois-Hyacinthe-Jules Laure, Eugène Modeste Edmond Lepoittevin, Emile Aubert Lessore, Auguste Dominique Mennessier, François Alexandre Pernot, Julie Philipault, August Thomas Pierre Philippe, Pierre Poterlet, Joachim Sotta, Henry de Triqueti, and Théophile Auguste Vauchelet. His most considerable works under the empire were "Achilles parting from Brisêis", and "Atala dying in the arms of Chactas" (both engraved in Landon's Annales du Musée); an "Incident of the life of Fénelon", painted in 1810, found a place at Malmaison, and "Passage of the Bridge at Landshut", which belongs to the same date, is now at Versailles.

Hersent's typical works, however, belong to the period of the Restoration; "Louis XVI relieving the Afflicted" (Versailles) and "Daphnis and Chloë" (engraved by Laugier and by Gele) were both in the Salon of 1817; at that of 1819 the "Abdication of Gustavus Vasa" brought to Hersent a medal of honour, but the picture, purchased by the Duke of Orléans, was destroyed at the Palais-Royal in 1848, and the engraving by Henriquel-Dupont is now its sole record. "Ruth", produced in 1822, became the property of Louis XVIII, who from the moment that Hersent rallied to the Restoration jealously patronized him, made him officer of the Legion of Honour, and pressed his claims at the Institut de France (Académie des Beaux-Arts), where he replaced van Spaendonck.

...
Wikipedia