Pierre Narcisse Guérin (1774–1833)

• Was a French painter born in Paris.
• A pupil of Jean-Baptiste Regnault.
• In 1799, his painting Marcus Sextus was exhibited at the Salon and excited wild enthusiasm.
• Part of this was due to the subject - a victim of Sulla's proscription returning to Rome to find his wife dead and his house in mourning - in which an allusion was found to the turmoil of the French Revolution.
• Guérin on this occasion was publicly crowned by the president of the Institute.
• He went to Rome to study under Joseph-Benoît Suvée.
• In 1800, unable to remain in Rome on account of his health, he went to Naples, where he painted The Shepherds in the Tomb of Amyntas.
• In 1810, after his return to Paris, he again achieved a great success with Andromache and Pyrrhus; and in the same year also exhibited Aurora and Cephalus (Pushkin Museum) and Bonaparte and the Rebels of Cairo.
• Many artists studied with Guérin, among them Eugène Delacroix, Théodore Géricault, Ary and Hendrik Scheffer.
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