Benjamin de Rolland

Benjamin Rolland, or Benjamin de Rolland (23 April 1773, Guadeloupe – 24 March 1855, Grenoble, Isère), was a French history painter and student of David. He held a number of high-profile art appointments, including court painter; museum curator and director; and art academy professor and director.

Biography Benjamin de Rolland was born in 1773, on the island of Guadeloupe and was of French Creole descent and Carcassonne nobility. He left Guadeloupe around the age of 13 to pursue his education in Paris, France. De Rolland also directed and taught at the city's School of Painting and Drawing, where his students included the artists Ernest Hébert, Théodore Fantin-Latour (father of Henri Fantin-Latour), Jules Guédy, Alexandre Debelle, Victor Sappey and Eugénie Chosson du Colombier.

Benjamin de Rolland exhibited regularly at the Paris Salons, held at the Louvre Palace in 1801, 1806, 1808, 1817, 1819, 1822, and 1824.

The Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Musée de Grenoble, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Museo Mario Praz and the Royal Palace of Caserta are among the cultural institutions that have a number of his paintings in their permanent collections.

Gallery

Museum collections Louvre Museum Musée d'Orsay Musée de Beaux-Arts de Lyon Musée de Grenoble Museo Nacional del Romanticismo, Madrid Palais Fesch-musée des beaux-arts Royal Palace of Caserta Musées de Sens Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux Musée des Beaux-Arts de Carcassonne Musée des Beaux-Arts de Saint-François Certosa di San Martino and Museo Nazionale di San Martino Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome – Museo Mario Praz Musée National du Château de Fontainebleau Chateau-musée de Gien, Chasse, histoire et nature en Val-de-Loire

Iconography Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, Portrait of Benjamin de Rolland, 1816. Musée de Grenoble acquisition from the model in 1847. Eugénie Chosson du Colombier, baronne Pasquier de Franclieu, Portrait of Benjamin de Rolland in his atelier, 1833. Musée de Grenoble acquisition from Mr Claude Auguste Bajat in 1855. Victor Sappey, Bronze medallion sculpture of Benjamin de Rolland, 1830. Musée de Grenoble acquisition from Mr Delage in 1911.