Alexandre-François Caminade

Alexandre Caminade trained among the latest generation of students of Jacques-Louis David and with Léonor Mérimée. He received a 2nd class medal in 1812 rewarding his portrait paintings. At the Salon of 1817, he decided to diversify his artistic production by exhibiting a religious painting assigned to the church of Notre-Dame-des-Champs A detail of the present painting (Repos de la Sainte Famille lors de la fuite en Egypte) that inaugurated a long series of commissions from the city of Paris to adorn its churches (Saint-Médard, Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais, Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, Saint-Eustache).

His masterpiece is the decoration of the chapel of the Virgin of the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont (1831-1839). Alexandre François Caminade was also skilled in History Painting. As a young painter, he received a gold medal with the rank of first medallist for a competition at the French Academy and the second Grand Prix de Rome in 1807 for his painting Thésée vainqueur du Minotaure. The artworks of Alexandre François Caminade were appraised for their firm drawing and their soft colors. He was part of the most famous painters under the Restauration and then the July Monarchy who obtained prestigious art commissions and important decorations. He was chosen to reproduce the portrait of Charles X in coronation costume (Besançon museum) by François Gérard.

He painted the full-length portrait of the Duchess of Angoulême (Versailles, Musée National du Château) and its bust replica now in the musée du Louvre. Aged 49 and wearing a tiara adorned with feathers, the portrait represents the daughter of Louis XVI, niece of Louis XVIII and of Charles X, before becoming his daughter-in-law. From this period, we can also mention the four allegorical figures painted by Alexandre-François Caminade to serve as décorative lintels to the third room of the Conseil d’Etat at the Louvre (Numa, Moïse, Justinien, Charlemagne), a large painting for the decoration of the state messengers' lounge at the Palais du Luxembourg (Le chancelier Michel de L’Hôpital remettant les Sceaux à Charles IX) paid the extraordinary amount of 8.000 francs in 1840.

His fellow artists on this gigantic project of renovation of the Palais du Luxembourg were Eugène Delacroix, Hippolyte Flandrin or Paul Delaroche. Finally, for King Louis-Philippe’s major project of museum of History of France, he painted over ten portraits, copies and restoration works.