La Paix

1830

Enters the studio of Ingres at eleven

At the age of eleven he is accepted into the studio of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and becomes the favourite pupil of the great classicist, who regards him as his truest disciple. According to an account that may be apocryphal, Ingres declared that this child would be the “Napoleon of painting”.

after 1834

Ingres leaves for Rome; Chassériau is drawn to Delacroix

When Ingres leaves Paris in 1834 to become director of the French Academy in Rome, Chassériau falls under the influence of Eugène Delacroix, whose painterly colorism was anathema to Ingres.

1836

First Salon and a third-place medal

He exhibits for the first time at the Paris Salon and is awarded a third-place medal in the category of history painting.

1840

Trip to Italy and the break with Ingres

In 1840 Chassériau travels to Rome and meets Ingres, whose bitterness at the direction his student’s work is taking leads to a decisive break. In Italy he makes landscape sketches, studies Renaissance frescoes and visits Pompeii.

1845

Colossal portrait of Ali-Ben-Hamet at the Salon

He exhibits at the Salon the colossal portrait “Ali-Ben-Hamet, Caliph of Constantine and Chief of the Haractas, Followed by his Escort”; critics’ reviews are equivocal.

1846

First trip to Algeria

He makes his first trip to Algeria; from the sketches made on this and subsequent trips he later paints his Orientalist subjects.