Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger (25 April 1824 – 22 September 1888) was a French figurative painter and academic artist and teacher known for his Classical and Orientalist subjects.

He never knew his father, and when his mother's death left him orphaned at the age of fourteen, he became the ward of his uncle, Constant Desbrosses,[1] who in 1840 sent him to study first under the history painter Pierre-Jules Jollivet and then at the atelier of Paul Delaroche, where Boulanger met and befriended his fellow student Jean-Léon Gérôme.

Boulanger and Gérome would become leading lights of the Néo-Grec movement in French art, which revisited the fascination of previous generations for the Classical world, but brought to its austere subject matter subversive touches of whimsy, sensuality, and eroticism.

"When they appear on the contemporary art scene, the Néo-Grecs will be defended as rejuvenators of the Classical tradition by some, condemned as gravediggers of history painting by others…they rarely give an orthodox image of Antiquity, some, like Gérôme, Boulanger and Hamon, not hesitating to choose licentious subjects, to parody mythological characters, or to invent very personal allegories of Antiquity.

In 1848, he obtained second place with Saint Pierre chez Marie, and the next year he won the Grand Prix with Ulysse reconnu par Euryclée and departed for Rome, where he would remain until 1855.

Wrote one reviewer: M. Boulanger, a first year pensionnaire, spent a lot of patience to paint with great finesse…a fat naked woman with red hair and slanted blue eyes, seated on rags of all colors and a scrap of cushion on which is engraved in Greek letters her name: Phryné.

Théophile Gautier was present to hear the recitation of his poem written for the occasion, La Femme de Diomède: Prologue.

Boulanger was able to merge, with rare spirit and a perfect fit, two apparently irreconcilable elements: the present and past, Paris and Pompeii before the eruption of Vesuvius!…rarely has an ancient pastiche been more successful.

"[15] With its synthesis of art, architecture, theatricality, re-enactment, wry humor, and royal patronage, Boulanger's Répétition du "Joueur de flûte" may be seen as the apotheosis of the Néo-Grec aesthetic.

"[21] Because museums preferred to collect his Classical subjects, Boulanger's Orientalist works were for a long time less well known, but in the 21st-century art market they are more sought after and bring higher prices.

The realism is stark, with none of the playfulness and luxurious fantasy of his previous Classical paintings; The Slave Market seems a world away from Répétition du "Joueur de flûte".

In response to this speech, Octave Mirbeau wrote a mocking rebuttal, "La Tristesse de M. Boulanger", which asserted that "the doctrines of M. Boulanger have no effect, no influence, good or bad, on men...He can write letters, heap volume upon volume, and deliver all the speeches he likes...He cannot make these ideas give talent to those who lack it, or take genius away from those who have it!

"[29] In a letter to Eugéne Montrosier dated 17 July 1888, Boulanger wrote: "I fight Modernity to the utmost when it manifests itself in the clownish pranksters who have elevated all their impotence and all their laziness to the state of principles.

[33] The two friends found the opportunity to collaborate when Garnier designed two opulent opera houses and commissioned Boulanger to execute large and elaborate paintings to decorate walls and ceilings.

At a ceremony honoring the birthday of Molière on 15 January 1863, Bernhardt's younger sister, Regina, stepped on the train of Mademoiselle Nathalie's gown.

A round face with a flattened, bald head, a squat nose, a small mouth, half-closed eyes, a shaggy beard—these are the traits of a magician of color and form, the creator of so many exquisite works!...And yet, as with Verlaine, of whom the image of Boulanger makes one think, what delicacy lies beneath this rough bark!

Eugène Montrosier, who saw him on his deathbed, wrote thatGustave Boulanger must have had a presentiment of his death, because, on the very day he was to fall ill, he insisted on reproducing, in a vehement study, the portrait of a three-year-old child whose photograph had been before him for several months, a project he had been setting aside.

[47] He was given "a beautiful funeral" attended by "le tout Paris artistique et littéraire," with speeches by his friends Henri Chapu, Tony Robert-Fleury, and Charles Garnier.

[48] By his will his estate was split between his cousin Paulemma Hennequin, his goddaughter Nathalia Desbrosses, and Mademoiselle Nathalie; having pre-deceased him, her share was claimed by the State.

[49] Boulanger's long and influential teaching career carried forward his principles of art well into the next century, even as the countervailing influence of Impressionism and other movements ultimately prevailed.

An unsigned obituary in the Courrier de l'Art was scathing, saying that Boulanger was "a perfectly gallant man, a very mediocre painter, and in no way an artist," who "taught better than he painted.

Boulanger's Orientalist works, like those of other painters in the genre, have risen sharply in value in the 21st century (thanks largely to a generation of immensely wealthy Arab collectors who "want to take it back and have it for themselves"[53]), but in this field his auction records are a fraction of those of Gérôme.

He has not always followed the same route; his very independent originality led him sometimes to right, sometimes to left; influences from Rome and the Academic milieu effected deviations here and there; but there is always a visible kinship between those two talents.

Curiosity, research, finesse and a grain of preciousness, love of the new, passion for the finished, need for exact detail: these are the common features that unite these two artists and maintain their family resemblance.

No art historian or curator has undertaken the task of decoupling Boulanger's legacy, so as to allow a full assessment of his work, based solely on its own merits.

A record for a Boulanger painting was set by La Cour du Palais de Dar Khdaouedj El Amia, Alger (1877), auctioned for $576,000 at Christie's in New York in 2005.

[58] Other notable results include $265,250 for El Hiasseub, Conteur arabe (1868) in 2009,[59] £119, 700 for The Prayer/La Prière (1871) in 2021,[60] $66,000 for Catherine I of Russia Negotiating the Treaty of Prut with the Turks (1866) in 2006,[61] €23,940 for Deux arabes assis (watercolor and charcoal) in 2023,[62] €18,750 for Project de décor pour le Foyer de la Dansee à l'Opéra Garnier (a large pencil and watercolor study, before 1875) in 2008,[63] and €11,256 for The Flowergirl (1888) in 2004.