Joseph Blanc

Joseph Blanc won the Prix de Rome in 1867, at 21, with a painting of Oedipus killing his father Laius. At the French Academy in Rome he worked on a Perseus, the hero floating nude with his sword in one hand and the Gorgon's head in the other, and the finished canvas of 1869 is now in the Musée d'Orsay.

Born in Paris in 1846, he trained with Émile Bin and Alexandre Cabanel and specialised in ancient history and mythology. His most visible work is in the Panthéon in Paris, where he painted the story of Clovis, the first Frankish king to become a Christian, with his vow at the Battle of Tolbiac, his baptism and his triumph. In 1889 he became a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts.