Félix Joseph BARRIAS
 (Paris, 1822 – Paris, 1907)

 Young Italian spinner

 Oil on canvas
 Signed and dated 1861 lower left
 33.5 x 26.5 cm

 Son of the porcelain painter and miniaturist BARRIAS, he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, under the direction of L. COGNIET.

 He exhibited regularly at the Parisian Salons from 1840, for sixty-five years. BARRIAS, following the award of the Prix de Rome in 1844 for his Cincinnatus receiving the ambassadors of the Senate, stayed at the Villa Medici from 1845 to 1849.

 He also won a 3rd medal in 1847, a 1st medal in 1851, a gold medal in 1889 and was decorated with the Order of Leopold of Belgium and promoted to the rank of officer of the Legion of Honor in 1897.

 He is the author of several decorative paintings in churches: at Saint-Eustache (1856) and at the Trinité in Paris (1867 and 1876), at Notre-Dame de Clignancourt (1861-1865); in public monuments, including the Amiens museum where he executed a dome and a pendentive in 1865; the large ceiling for Prince Nariskine in Saint Petersburg in 1866; a large 50-meter frieze in London in 1872; the ceiling and four pendentives in the foyer of the Paris Opera in 1874; decoration of the pavilion of the Argentine Republic at the Universal Exhibition of 1889; three domes and various decorations at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris in 1890.

 BARRIAS was also an illustrator for the works of VIRGIL, CORNEILLE, RACINE, SHAKESPEARE and popular novels by DUMAS and Frédéric SOULIE.

 He trained many artists in his studio such as DEGAS, PELEZ, VIBERT, GUILLAUMET…

 Museums : Louvre, Versailles, Petit Palais, Orsay Museum, Krakow, Baltimore, Autun, Châlons-sur-Marne, Cologne, Douai, Laval, Lille, Nantes, Nîmes, Périgueux, Le Puy-en-Velay, Rouen, Tarbes…