Laurens, Jean-Paul (b Fourquevaux, Haute-Garonne, 28 March 1838; d Paris, 23 March 1921).

French painter, illustrator and teacher. At an early age he took lessons from a Piedmont painter, Pédoya, who had come to Fourquevaux to decorate the village church. Pédoya was a harsh teacher, and Laurens moved to the nearby Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse. There he studied under Jean-Blaise Villemsens (1806–59), the professor of sculpture, who took a great interest in him. In 1858 he won the Prix de la Ville de Toulouse, which paid for him to complete his studies in Paris. There he was a pupil first of Alexandre Bida (1823–95) and then of Léon Cogniet. After a single unsuccessful attempt to win the Prix de Rome, he made his début at the Salon in 1863 with the Death of Cato (1863; Toulouse, Mus. Augustins), which already revealed his fascination for historical subjects.