French painter and printmaker. In 1822 Chassriau moved with his family to Paris, where he received a bourgeois upbringing under the supervision of an older brother. A precociously gifted draughtsman, he entered
Ingres s studio at the age of 11 and remained there until
Ingres left to head the Acadmie de France in Rome in 1834. He made his Salon dbut in 1836 with several portraits and religious subjects, including Cain Accursed (Paris, private collection), for which he received a third-class medal. Among his many submissions in subsequent years were Susanna Bathing (1839, exhibited Salon 1839; Paris, Louvre), a Marine Venus (1838; exhibited Salon 1839; Paris, Louvre) and the
Toilet of Esther (1841, exhibited Salon 1842; Paris, Louvre); these three paintings of nude female figures combine an idealization derived from
Ingres with a sensuality characteristic of Chassriau.
In the 1840s he conceived an admiration for
Delacroix and attempted, with considerable success, to combine
Ingres s classical linear grace with
Delacroix s Romantic colour. His chief work was the decoration of the Cour des Comptes in the Palais d Orsay, Paris, with allegorical scenes of
Peace and War (1844-48), but these were almost completely destroyed by fire. There are other examples of his decorative work, however, in various churches in Paris. Chassriau was also an outstanding portraitist and painted nudes and
North African scenes (he made a visit there in 1846).