Papety, Dominique Louis (b Marseille, 12 Aug 1815; d Marseille, 20 Sept 1849)

French painter. Son of a soap manufacturer, he received his first artistic training in Marseille under Augustin Aubert (1781–1857). In 1835 he moved to Paris and entered the atelier of Léon Cogniet at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He won the Prix de Rome in 1836 with Moses Striking the Rock (Paris, Ecole. N. Sup. B.-A.), and from 1836 to 1841 he was consequently at the Académie de France in Rome, which was then under the directorship of Ingres. This period in Rome was Papety’s most productive. He distinguished himself as a history painter of classical and religious subjects and as an orientalist. He also produced a number of utopian scenes in antique settings influenced by the socialist theories of the French philosopher Charles Fourier (1772–1837). The most famous painting of the latter category, and also his most significant work, is the Dream of Happiness (Compiègne, Mus. Mun. Vivenel), which he began in Rome in 1837. It had a great success when, still unfinished, it was exhibited in Paris in 1841, though the critics were less favourable when it was shown finished at the Salon of 1843. During his stay in Rome, Papety made copies after works by Raphael, such as Mercury (1840; Marseille, Mus.). He also developed an ethnographic interest and produced numerous paintings on Italian subjects, under the influence of Léopold Robert. Papety made short trips to Florence, Naples, Venice and Padua, painting the various regional and social types and costumes, such as lazzaroni and pifferari. In these works he tried to show that the modern Italians had retained the thoughtful gravitas, nobility and attitudes of their ancient counterparts, as in Italian Peasant (London, Wallace), whose figure stands with a classical pose.