Jean François Bosio

1764 – 1827

French painter and draughtsman, the elder brother of the sculptor François-Joseph Bosio. He moved to Paris in the second half of the 1780s and there he embarked upon his academic training to become a peintre d'histoire. He became both friend and pupil of the Neoclassical painter, Jacques-Louis David, and exhibited at the Salons of 1793, 1798, 1801 and 1804. He painted biblical and mythological themes, as well as family portraits. A capable draughtsman and watercolourist, Bosio taught drawing in the École Polytechnique from its opening in 1794 and published a thesis on the art of drawing anatomy and antique sculpture. He also worked as an engraver, and worked for newspapers. In around 1805, following the death of his wife, Bosio settled in Milan, then under French imperial rule. Here he produced engraved portraits of the imperial family. In 1818, Bosio returned to Paris, where he continued to paint and exhibit at the Salon: in 1819 he exhibited a Death of the Virgin which had been commissioned for the cathedral of Chartres, and three years later he executed a full-length portrait of Louis XVIII.

View all works →