Prudent-Louis Leray

Prudent-Louis Leray, (29 August 1820 – 25 May 1879) was a French painter and lithographer.

Life
Born in Couëron, Leray was the son of a famous doctor from Nantes who distinguished himself during the 1832 cholera pandemic. After studying as a scholarship student at the college in Nantes, Leray entered the city school of fine arts.

A pupil of Paul Delaroche, Leray exhibited for the first time at the Salon in 1848. Since then, his works have appeared with great success at all the annual Salons.

Gifted with a fine and delicate talent, Leray excelled at genre paintings, where coquetry and grace give a poetic character. Very meticulous in the details of his compositions, his canvases constitute a veritable museum of the costume of the Louis XV period, a period that he particularly liked.

Leray died as a result of a stroke he had suffered four days earlier, while painting in his workshop on Rue Véron. He was 58 of age.