PRUD'HON, prki'd5x', PIERRE (1758-18•23) A French historical and genre painter, born in Cluny. His father was a stone-cutter, and he received his first instruction from the monks of the Abbey of Cluny. Afterwards he stud ied under Desvoges at Dijon. An unfortunate marriage handicapped the painter in his youth. Ile worked in Paris with Wille, the engraver, and in 1783 won the Prix de Rome. In 1789 he returned to Paris, and at first supported himself • by working for the booksellers, but finally at tracted the attention of Napoleon, who gave him lodging in the Sorbonne. Under the influence of his friend Constance Mayer, a pupil of Greuze, he painted his best pictures. such as the portrait of Josephine (Louvre) and "Crime Pursued by Vengeance and Justice" (1808, Louvre), for which he received the Legion of Honor. In 1811 he was appointed drawing master to the Empress Maria Louisa, and in 1816 he was elected to the Institute. After the death, by suicide, of Mlle.
Mayer, in 1821, Prud'hon completed his picture "The Unfortunate Family" (Louvre) , and paint ed a few religious pieces, including "Crucifixion" ( Louvre). Though he nearly always painted classi cal subjects, he was one of the principal precur sors of Romanticism. In Italy he had studied Leonardo, and his women have something of the subtlety of this master. The delicacy of his coloring, the correctness of his drawing, and the simplicity of his conception, make him one of the most pleasing of the successors of David. Con sult: Clement, Prud'hon, sa lie, ses a-um-es et sa eorrespondanee (Paris, 1868 and 1872) ; De Gon court, Vail an XVIIInte sieele (Paris, 1S75).