Carolus-Duran
Charles Emile Auguste Duran, known simply as Carolus-Duran, was a French Academic artist who lived from 1837 to 1917. He is mostly remembered as a portrait painter of members of French high society. During the nineteenth century, his French portraits done in a style of Spanish Realism made his pieces unique.
Carolus-Duran was born in Lille in northern France. His father was a hotel owner, and saw his son’s precocious art talent, and allowed him to begin his art education at just eight years old. In 1855 Carolus-Duran moved to Paris with his family and continued his art education. When he arrived in Paris, he adopted the artist pen name of Carolus-Duran. In 1862, after studying at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Duran spent four years travelling through Italy and Spain to continue his art training. He was particularly fond of the work of the Spanish Baroque and portrait artist, Diego Velázquez, whose influence can be seen in his works.
From 1870 on, Carolus-Duran produced mostly portraits, as that was a steady source of income that paid well. Though mostly known for his portraits, he tackled a wide range of artistic subjects, such as historic paintings, nudes, landscapes, and even sculpture. In 1873, he opened up his own school of art. Perhaps his most well-known student was John Singer Sargent, but he also taught James Carroll Beckwith. In 1905, Carolus-Duran was appointed the director of the French Academy in Rome. He painted throughout his life up until his death in 1917 at 79 years of age.
Carolus-Duran was very successful during his lifetime, winning awards and prestigious positions in art academia. Fellow artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec even called Carolus-Duran ‘The Prince of Color’. However, after his death, he fell from the general memory of art history, perhaps because of the growth in popularity of Impressionism which coincided with his own works of art.
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