François Debon

Who was François Debon?

François Hyppolite Debon, was a French painter. He studied under Antoine-Jean Gros and Abel de Pujol, and exhibited at the Paris Salon, where he won several medals, including a third class one in 1844 and two second class ones in 1835 and 1868. Baudelaire said of Debon's 1845 painting The Battle of Hastings "What talent! What energy!" That canvas was later lost in a fire at the musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen in 1905.