Theodore
Chasseriau
(b El Limón, nr Samaná [now in the Dominican Republic], 20 Sept
1819; d Paris, 8 Oct 1856).
French painter and printmaker. In 1822 Chassériau moved with his family
to Paris, where he received a bourgeois upbringing under the supervision
of an older brother. A precociously gifted draughtsman, he entered
Ingres’s studio at the age of 11 and remained there until Ingres left to
head the Académie de France in Rome in 1834. He made his Salon début in
1836 with several portraits and religious subjects, including Cain
Accursed (Paris, priv. col.), for which he received a third-class
medal. Among his many submissions in subsequent years were Susanna
Bathing (1839, exh. Salon 1839; Paris, Louvre), a Marine Venus
(1838; exh. Salon 1839; Paris, Louvre) and the Toilet of Esther
(1841, exh. Salon 1842; Paris, Louvre; see fig.); these three paintings
of nude female figures combine an idealization derived from Ingres with
a sensuality characteristic of Chassériau.