Alexandre Menjaud

Alexandre Menjaud (Paris, 1773 – 1832) was a French history painter working in the Troubadour style, a movement that revived episodes from France's medieval and early modern past in place of the classical subjects favoured by Neoclassicism. Although his name is less prominent in general surveys, his career shows the shift from Napoleonic academic painting to scenes of national history.

He received his first training from Jean-Baptiste Regnault, a Neoclassical painter. He exhibited at the Salon from 1796 until his death. In 1802 he won the Prix de Rome with a scene of Julius Sabinus and Epponina before Vespasian. From 1802 to 1806 he was listed as a pensioner at the French Academy in Rome, a tense period for young French artists because of the French army's earlier occupation of the city.

By 1808, back in Paris, he showed at the Salon a painting of Henry IV sharing a drink with a humble miller named Michaud. It was a great success, and afterwards he concentrated on episodes from French history rather than classical themes. He received commissions from the Imperial Family. After the First Restoration he produced a series on the lives of great artists, such as Raphael and Tintoretto. His The Death of the Duke of Berry (1822) is among his known works. Menjaud died in Paris in 1832.