Édouard Joseph Dantan (1848 – 1897) was a French painter in the classical tradition. He was widely recognized in his day, although he was subsequently eclipsed by painters with more modern styles. He was born in Paris and both his father, uncle and grandfather were sculptors. He studied painting at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and at the age of nineteen, he won a commission for a large mural painting of The Holy Trinityfor the Hospice Brezin at Marne. Dantan's first exhibit at the Paris Salon was An Episode in the Destruction of Pompeii in 1869. In 1870 the Franco-Prussian War interrupted his work and he enlisted in the defense force. During the war the family home was burned down. In the years after the war, Dantan exhibited a number of other paintings at the Salon including Hercules at the Feet of Omphale (1871), Death of Tusaphane(1875), The Nymph Salmacis (1876), Priam Demanding of Achillees the Body of Hector (1877), Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew (1878), Corner of a Studio (1880) and The Breakfast of the Model (1881). He continued to exhibit at the Salon until 1895. In 1890, 1894 and 1895 he served on the jury of the Salon. For twelve years Dantan's companion was the model Agostina Segatori, who had also posed for artists such as Jean-Baptiste Corot, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Eugène Delacroix and Édouard Manet. She bore a child to Dantan, Jean-Pierre, in 1873. After their separation, Agostina opened Café du Tambourin on the Boulevard de Clichy that became a meeting place for artists. Dantan spent his summers in Villerville, where he died on July 9, 1897, when the carriage in which he was riding crashed into the village church.
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Self-Portrait
Coin d'atelier(1880)
Un Coin du Salon en 1880
Studio-scene (ca. 1890)
L'Atelier du Sculpteur, 1887
Phrosine et Mélidore,1878
Portrait, ca. 1878