Guillaume Dubufe

Guillaume Dubufe (Paris, 1853 - at sea near Buenos Aires, 1909) was a French painter, decorator and illustrator. He came from an artistic family: his father, Édouard Louis Dubufe, was a painter, his mother, Juliette Dubufe, a sculptor, and his grandfather was also a painter. He first learned from his father, then trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Alexis-Joseph Mazerolle.

He is best known for his decorative work on interiors. In 1885 he painted the ceiling of the Comédie-Française, and during the 1890s he decorated the Lobau Gallery at the Paris city hall, the banquet hall of the Élysée Palace and the Sorbonne library. He also painted religious subjects, including a series on the Virgin Mary from 1888 to 1890, and scenes of his villa at Anacapri, shown in 1906 at the Georges Petit Gallery. In 1900 he painted the poster Lyon for the Le Train Bleu restaurant at the Gare de Lyon. His friend Émile Friant painted his portrait in 1905.

He died suddenly at sea near Buenos Aires. His legacy lies mainly in monumental decoration of public buildings and in his works on paper. His tomb at Père Lachaise cemetery bears a sculpture by his friend Albert Bartholomé.