Joseph-Désiré Court

Nymph and Faun bathing, 1824, Musée des Beaux-arts et de la Dentelle d'Alençon.

Joseph-Désiré Court (September 14, 1797 – January 23, 1865) was a French painter of historical subjects and portraits.

Court was born at Rouen. He became a pupil at the École des Beaux-Arts under Gros, and after carrying off the principal honours there pursued his studies still further at Rome. High expectations were formed of him when he exhibited in 1827 'The Death of Caesar,' a work manifesting earnest thought, and a conscientious handling of the facts of history. This is now preserved in the Louvre. Having shown himself in this and other works a vigorous painter, capable of seizing a subject with a masterly grasp, and having also in the region of portrait painting proved himself an artist of no common merit, he eventually dissipated his talents in the production of a series of empty official pictures painted by order of Louis Philippe. He died in Paris in 1865. The Bordeaux Museum has a portrait of Henri Fonfrède by him; that of Lyons, a Scene from the Great Flood; that of Rouen, Boissy-d'Anglas saluting the head of Féraud.

Portrait of prince Peter of Oldenburg in uniform of L-G Preobrajensky Regiment, 1842

Gallery

• 
  Portrait of Victor Rifaut. 1822
• 
  1829
• 
  Guy-Victor Duperré. 1832.
• 
  Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette. 1834
• 
  Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine. 1834
• 
  The King gives the flags to the National Guard of Paris and the Banlieu (29 August 1830). 1834
• 
  Sylvain Charles Valée. 1838
• 
  Portrait of Marguerite Louise Cibiel and of Marie Aglaure Cibiel paging through a book. 1839
• 
  Rigolette keeping herself busy while Germain is away. 1842
• 
  Jean-François Allard

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bryan, Michael (1886). "Court, Joseph Désiré". In Graves, Robert Edmund. Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers (A–K). I (3rd ed.). London: George Bell & Sons.