François Flameng Biography | Oil Painting Reproductions

François Leopold Flameng was the son of the renowned engraver Leopold Flameng, François studied with Alexandre Cabanel, Pierre Hedouin, and J.P. Laurens at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. François Flameng was a multi-talented artist, a painter of historical and genre scenes and landscapes, in addition, a draftsman and an engraver. In 1873, he started exhibiting at the Paris Salon, he received a first and second class medal in 1879, and in 1889, he was awarded a Grand Prix at the Paris Universal Exhibition.

In 1882, his portrait was painted by his friend, the American artist John Singer Sargent. François Leopold Flameng was highly appreciated by the public and art critics, he painted portraits of many important and influential people.

He was commissioned by the State to paint historical scenes for official buildings. With a fine sensitivity, he represents the lightness of being of playful characters entertaining themselves with music, reading, or poetry in a bourgeois environment. In 1905, he was named Professor at the Beaux-Arts Academy.

In 1914, he was among the first artists to be enlisted in the army as an official painter, he did a lot of studies and sketches during the war that he would later use for his oil paintings. François Flameng later received renown for his painting of World War I.

He was named the honorary president of the Society of Military Painters and accredited by the War Ministry to document military affairs. His work was displayed in the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris, as well as reproduced in news magazines. Even though his works of art appear to be sentimental to eyes that have seen photos of genocide, at the time they were painted, François Flameng's war artworks were ridiculed by many art critics for being too realistic and not including heroic drama. Most of his war paintings were donated to the Musée de l'Armée in 1920.

Art Movement: Academic.
Artists Influencing Flameng: Alexandre Cabanel, Pierre Hedouin, John Paul Laurens.
Painters François Flameng Influenced: Paul-Émile Bécat.
Artist's Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.