Paul Philippoteaux (1846 - 1923)

Born in Paris into a family of artists, Paul Philippoteaux studied at the Lycée Henri IV. Like his father Félix, he was destined to become a painter and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, continuing his training in his father's studio and then with Léon Cognet and Alexandre Cabanel.

His father was a specialist in historical painting. Together, they became interested in panorama painting and produced "La défense du fort d'Issy" in 1871. Paul also produced illustrations for various authors, including Alphonse Daudet and Jules Verne. But Paul Philippoteaux remains in the legend for two panoramas. One in 1879, "The Battle of Gettysburg", painted in Chicago and measuring more than a hundred metres in length. And the other in 1880, "Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion of Christ", his masterpiece, fourteen metres high and one hundred metres long, created in Chicago and now exhibited in Quebec.

He obviously painted European subjects. And having lived in Egypt, he produced many orientalist paintings, which are still very popular today, since one of his paintings entitled "Au souk" fetched more than 105,000 € in New York in 2006. He is known for a few Breton paintings, including this port of Pont-Aven.