Jean Jules Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ

Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ was a French painter known for detailed Orientalist and historical scenes. Born in Paris in 1842, he studied under leading academic masters, including Jean-Léon Gérôme, and traveled in the Middle East and North Africa. He brought back richly colored, meticulously finished paintings of imagined scenes from Egypt, Turkey, and the ancient world.

His polished technique and love of exotic detail made him popular in the official art world of his time. Like other Orientalist painters, his fantasy visions of the East are now viewed with a more critical eye. Lecomte du Nouÿ remains a skilled representative of the ornate, storytelling academic painting of late nineteenth century France.