Joseph Layraud

Joseph Fortuné Séraphin Layraud (15 October 1834 – 12 October 1912) was a French painter. There is no complete clearance as to the birth' and the death' dates. Some sources refer to 1833–1913.^[1][2] His range included historical scenes and figures, religious and mythological subjects, landscapes, and portraits of contemporaries.^[3]

Life and career

Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal

Portuguese royal family, 1876

Joseph declaring himself to his brothers

Layraud was born at La Roche-sur-le-Buis in south-eastern France. After beginning his training in Marseilles in 1853 he moved to Paris in 1856, studying at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts under Léon Cogniet and Tony Robert-Fleury. He was awarded the Grand Prix de Rome in 1863.^[4]

After his time in Rome, Layraud travelled in Italy and Portugal, painting landscapes, he did some history paintings and many portraits.^[3] From 1892 he was a professor at the Académie des beaux-arts in Valenciennes. His pupils included Jules Chaine, Max Albert Decrouez, Grégoire Nicolas Finez, Lucien Hector Jonas, Charles Paris, Maurice Rufin and Alfred Léon Sauvage.^[4][5]

Layraud exhibited at the Paris Salon, winning medals in 1872; his work was shown at the 1889 and 1900 Expositions Universelles.^[4]

Layraud was appointed Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 1890 and was promoted to Officer in 1903. He died 1913 on his birth day, in Valenciennes.^[4]

Works

Layraud's works are on show in French galleries in:

• Avignon (Doctor P E Chauffard)
• Bayonne (Femme au chapeau noir)
• Cahors (portrait of Léon Gambetta)
• Chambery (Le bon Samaritain)
• Épinal (Marsyas Flayed)
• Narbonne (Diogenes)
• Paris
  • Musée d'Orsay (Chambre mortuaire de Gambetta)
  • École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (Joseph se fait reconnaître par ses frères)
• Troyes (vue de Lisbonne prise de la rive gauche du Tage; vue du Tage prise du palais de l'ambassade de France)
• Valence (Joseph se fait reconnaître par ses frères), (Wreck of the Medusa; Mgr Catton; Inès de Castro)

The Musée des beaux-arts of his adopted city, Valenciennes, holds many works by Layraud, including Bulls Brought Out and many portraits of which that of Liszt is among the best known.^[4][6]

Internationally, Layraud's work is displayed in Melbourne (Italian Highwaymen), the Ajuda National Palace,^[4] and Smith College Museum of Art, Massachusetts (Portrait de Pierre Dupont).^[7]