Bonnat

Bonnat, Leon, a French painter, born at Bayonne, 1833. After studying in Spain he exhibited for the first time in the Salon of 1857. He then went to Italy, and confined himself chiefly to imitating the old masters. In this and in some kinds of religious paintings he met with success. His Good Samaritan, at the Salon of 1859. showed progress, and his Adam and Eve finding Abel dead, and a little Italian sketch of a girl, Mariuccia, gained him a gold medal. But it was not till 1864 that Th. Gautier was able to congratulate him on having attained originality and a style of his own, in his Pilgrims at the Foot of St. Peter's Statue at Rome. His painting of an Italian beggar boy, Mezzo bajocco Eccellenza, is admired, as also his Italian Peasants before the Farnese Palace.