Henri-Pierre Picou

Henri-Pierre Picou (Nantes, 1824 – 1895) was a French academic painter and one of the founders of the Neo-Grec school. His career matters because it shows how a group of artists trained in the same Parisian academic milieu sought new thematic directions in the mid-nineteenth century.

Picou trained in the studios of Paul Delaroche and later of Charles Gleyre, whose influence is clearly visible in his style. He began with portraits and classical historical subjects, then turned toward allegorical and mythological themes. He made his Salon debut in 1847, and the following year won a second-class medal with Cleopatra on the Cydnus, regarded as his masterpiece. The critic Théophile Gautier wrote favourably about the painting. In 1853 he won the Second Prix de Rome with Jesus Driving the Moneychangers from the Temple.

Unlike his friends Gustave Boulanger, Jean-Léon Gérôme and Jean-Louis Hamon, who mostly worked on classical and mythological subjects, Picou also received commissions for large religious frescoes for several churches, including the Église Saint-Roch in Paris. He maintained a large workshop on the Boulevard de Magenta. He exhibited at the Salon almost every year until 1893 and has been considered the most fashionable painter towards the close of the Second French Empire. His legacy is linked above all to the Neo-Grec school.