Jules Girardet

Girardet was a French painter, pastellist and watercolourist. Girardet was from an artistic Swiss Huguenot family, His father was the engraver, Paul Girardet. He studied at the École des Beaux-arts in Paris and became a pupil of Alexandre Cabanel.

Girardet travelled to North Africa with his brother Eugène, an orientalist, but Jules prefered to devote himself to history painting and portraiture, which he exhibited in Switzerland and France. He won a gold medal at the Paris Salon of 1881 and obtained the silver medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1889. He produced a decorative panel for the room of the Grand Council of Neuchâtel. After several trips to North Africa with his brother Eugène, a noted Orientalist painter, he chose instead to concentrate on genre scenes and history painting. The Commune and Louise Michel were favorite topics.

He married in 1881 and built a house with a studio in Boulogne-Billancourt. That same year, he began to exhibit at the Salon. He won a Silver Medal at the Exposition Universelle (1889). In addition to his paintings, he illustrated several books, including Mademoiselle de Fierlys by Frédéric Dillaye (who died in the infamous fire at the Bazar de la Charité) and Tartarin de Tarascon by Alphonse Daudet. His brothers Léon, Paul Armand and Théodore were also painters or engravers, as was his sister, Julia Antonine (1851-1921).