[1] His father, a drawing instructor in Nimes, introduced him to art before he trained in Paris with Léon Cogniet, Paul Delaroche, and Charles Jalabert.

[1] Adolphe Jourdan earned the prize of honor at the 1863 Exposition Régionale des Beaux-Arts in Nimes for his single painting on display.

[3] The native of Nimes began exhibiting at the annual Paris Salon held by the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1855, receiving medals in 1864, 1866, and 1869.

[2] Jourdan was ranked among France's popular painters alongside Jean-Léon Gérôme and Alexandre Cabanel.

[5] Employed by a Parisian art dealer, he painted replicas of masterworks, notably Cabanel's The Birth of Venus (1864), frequently mistaken for the original.