Jean Alaux

He received his first lessons in art from his father, but went on to a formal training with Pierre Lacour and later with Pierre-Narcisse Guérin.

Alaux eventually won the major Prix de Rome in 1815 with a work entitled Briseis weeping over the body of Patroclus, a scene inspired by the Iliad of Homer.

[1] Among his fellow artists at the Academy were Drolling, Picot, and Cogniet, along with sculptors David d'Angers, Pradier, and Ramey; he became a friend of Ingres.

His first painting at the Academy was Cadmus killing the dragon at the fountains of Dirce, which was later purchased by the Duke of Orleans but was destroyed in the fire which engulfed the Palais-Royal in the French Revolution of 1848.

Alaux also painted at the Academy Diamedes carrying off the palladium and Episodes in the combats between the centaurs and the Lapithes.