Henri-Paul Motte

Portrait of Henri-Paul Motte

Henri-Paul Motte (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ʁi pɔl mɔt]; 13 December 1846 – 1 April 1922) was a French artistic painter from Paris, who specialised in history painting and historical genre.

Motte was a pupil of the artist Jean-Léon Gérôme and began to exhibit at the Paris Salon from 1874 onwards. The painting Le cheval de Troie (The Trojan horse) was the artist's début at the Salon, and was acquired by the Wadsworth Atheneum in 2011. In 1892 he was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. He won a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle (1900). He is best known for his work of the Siege of La Rochelle, a depiction of Cardinal Richelieu in battle during the 17th century, completed in 1881.

Works

• Le cheval de Troie (The Trojan horse) (1874; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut)
• Baal Moloch dévorant les prisonniers de guerre à Babylone (Baal Moloch devouring the prisoners of war in Babylon) (1876; National Museum of Fine Arts of Algiers)
• Passage du Rhône par l'armée d'Annibal (Hannibal's army crossing the Rhône) (1878)
• Circé et les compagnons d'Ulysse (Circe and the companions of Ulysses) (1879)
• César s'ennuie (1880)
• Richelieu sur la digue de La Rochelle (Richelieu on the sea wall of La Rochelle) (1881; Musée des Beaux-Arts de La Rochelle)
• La fiancée de Bélus (The Fiancee of Belus) (1885)
• Vercingétorix se rend à César (Vercingetorix surrenders to Caesar) (1886)
• Les oies du Capitole (The geese of the Capitol) (1889)
• Napoléon au trône de Charlemagne (Napoleon at Charlemagne's Throne) (1898)

Gallery

• 
  Richelieu on the sea wall of La Rochelle, 1881
• 
  Hannibal's army crossing the Rhône, 1878
• 
  Battle of Zama, 1890
• 
  Vercingetorix surrendering to Caesar, 1892
• 
  The geese of the Capitol
• 
  Swiss Guards on the grand staircase of the palace during the storming of the Tuileries in 1792
• 
  Caesar is bored
• 
  The Israelites dancing around the Golden Calf
• 
  The Fiancée of Belus