"[3] Cabanel was the son of a modest carpenter, and he began his apprenticeship at the Montpellier School of Fine Arts in the class of Charles Matet, curator of the Musée Fabre.

He gained more recognition with The Birth of Venus, exhibited at the Salon of 1863, and which was immediately purchased by Napoleon III for his personal collection.

The classical composition embodies ideals of Academic art: a mythological subject, graceful modeling, silky brushwork, and perfected forms.

However, he intervened in 1881 during the presentation of Pertuiset, Le chasseur de lions, by Manet, and defended it by saying: "Gentlemen, there is not one among us who is capable of doing a head like that in the open air!"

He was promoted to the rank of Commander of the Legion of Honor in 1884, and was elected associate of the Royal Academy of Belgium on 6 January 1887.

A monument was erected to him in 1892 by the architect Jean Camille Formigé, decorated with a marble bust by Paul Dubois and a sculpture, Regret, by Antonin Mercié.