Georges Leroux 1871-1954

Born in Paris in 1871, during the Commune, Auguste Leroux received his earliest artistic training from his father, Gustave Leroux, a publisher of prints, and alongside his younger brother Georges Paul Leroux (1877–1957), who, like him, would go on to enjoy a distinguished career as a painter.

After entering the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, where he studied fashion drawing and illustration, he was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1892 and joined the studio of Léon Bonnat. An exceptionally gifted student, he successively won several awards: the drawing prize in 1892, the figure prize in 1893 and the torso prize in 1894. That same year, he was awarded the Premier Grand Prix de Rome for Judith Presenting the Head of Holofernes to the People of Bethulia.

As a resident of the Villa Medici from 1895 to 1898, Auguste Leroux formed friendships with the painter Adolphe Déchenaud and the composer Henri Busser, whose portrait he painted. From 1898 onwards, he exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français, initially concentrating on history painting. He soon achieved recognition and pursued a successful official career, crowned by a bronze medal at the 1900 Paris Universal Exhibition.

Alongside his large allegorical compositions, Leroux gradually turned to genre painting and illustration, while also establishing his reputation as a portraitist (fig. 1). He contributed to several major monumental decorative projects, notably the mosaics of the Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre between 1907 and 1910.

A member of both the jury and the committee of the Société des Artistes Français from 1904 onwards, he was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1924, where he taught for almost thirty years. He also taught at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, training several generations of artists, including Yvonne Jean-Haffen, Louis William Graux and his daughter Madeleine Leroux, who would later win the Second Grand Prix de Rome.