FLANDRIN, JEAN-HYPPOLITE. — Born in Lyons on 23 March 1809, died in Rome on 31 March 1864. After studying in his homeland from 1829, he went to Paris to the Academy, where he was a pupil of Ingres. Three years later he was in Rome, attracted by the art of the early Renaissance and studying the painting of Raffaello.
It was in Rome that he began to turn toward painting with religious subjects and spirit, which he was never thereafter to abandon throughout his life. In 1837 F. was in fact painting a St Clare Healing the Blind for the cathedral of Nantes and, having returned to France, began an extensive and highly esteemed activity as a fresco painter.
Among his works are: the paintings in the chapel of St Joseph in the church of St-Séverin (1840–41), those in the choir of the church of St-Germain-des-Prés in Paris (1842–46), those in the church of St Paul at Nîmes, and others in the church of St Vincent de Paul; moreover, in 1855 he painted the paintings in the apse of St Martin d’Ainay in Lyons and then, finally, between 1856 and 1861, 20 Scenes from the Old and New Testaments in the central nave of the Parisian church of St-Germain-des-Prés.
F., in addition to these religious paintings, excelled in the art of portraiture, and numerous works of his are preserved in the principal museums of France and also in Italy. He was a purist painter, yet faithful to the teachings of Ingres, which he may be said never to have forgotten. And even when he was drawn into the orbit of Roman purism, characterized by the activity of the Nazarenes, he was able to maintain a tone of great formal and draughtsmanship-related dignity in the French manner, which was undoubtedly his finest merit.