Philippe-Auguste Hennequin

Who was Philippe-Auguste Hennequin?

Philippe-Auguste Hennequin was a French history painter and portraitist.

A student of the Swede Per Eberhard Cogell in Lyon, then in Paris a student of David, he then went to Rome thanks to an English patron, but was forced to leave the city due to the anti-French riots of 1793. Under the First French Empire he produced large historical compositions, such as A Distribution of the Légion d'Honneur at the Boulogne camp, A Battle of the Pyramids and the 4m by 6m The Triumph of the French people on 10 August. Under the Bourbon Restoration, he went into self-imposed exile in Belgium, where he was director of the Académie de Tournai, though he later died in poverty. Many of his drawings are held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon.