Daniel Sénélar

Daniel Sénélar (Paris, 1925 – Paris, 2001) was a French painter and sculptor, trained at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris and known for winning the Prix de Rome in painting in 1951. His career combined academic training, mural work and teaching, offering a view of French figurative painting in the second half of the twentieth century.

He was presented at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in 1947 by Nicolas Untersteller. Before completing his training he took part in restoration work at the Palace of Versailles and at the church of Saint-Jean in Neuilly-sur-Seine. He later worked under Maurice Brianchon, and in 1951 he received the Grand Prix de Rome, which took him to the Villa Medici in Rome from 1952 to 1955, under the direction of Jacques Ibert.

Among his works are Figure peinte (1950), Training of Race Horses in Winter (1950), The Horse, Companion of Man (1951), the painting with which he won the Prix de Rome, and Card Players in a Salon or a Café (1952). The Horse, Companion of Man survives as a fresco at the former Bibliothèque Municipale in Neuilly. His work appears in public collections and official buildings, and he also produced drawings and graphics.

From 1966 to 1990 he taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lille, where his students included Anne Lambert, Sonia Tamer and Hugues Absil. His legacy lies chiefly in that teaching and in his murals and public commissions.