Robert-Fleury, Joseph- Nicolas (1797—1890),

French painter, was born at Cologne. He was sent by his family to Paris, and after travelling in Italy returned to France and made his first appearance at the Salon in 1824; his reputation, however, was not established until three years later, when he exhibited “Tasso at the Convent of St Onophrius.” Endowed with a vigorous original talent, and with a vivid imagination, especially for the tragic incidents of history, he soon rose to fame, and in 185o succeeded Granet as member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. In 1855 he was appointed professor and in 1863 director of the École des Beaux-Arts, and in the following year he went to Rome as director of the French Academy in that city. Among his chief works are: “ A Reading at Mme. de Sévigné’s,” “Scene of St Bartholomew,” “Henry IV. taken to the Louvre after his Assassination” (1836); “Triumphal Entry of Clovis at Tours” (1838), at the Versailles Museum; “Le Colloque de Poissy” (1840), at the Luxembourg Museum in Paris; “The Children of Louis XVI. in the Temple” (1840); “Marino Faliero “; “An Auto-da-fé,” “Galileo before the Holy Office,” at the Luxembourg Museum; “Christopher Columbus received by the Spanish Court” (1847), at the same gallery; “The Last Moments of Montaigne” (1853); and “Charles V. in the Monastery of Yuste” (1857). He died in Paris in 1890