DUBOIS, PAUL (1829-1905), French sculptor and painter, was born at Nogent-sur-Seine on the 18th of July 1829. He studied law to please his family, and art to please himself, and finally adopted the latter, and placed himself under Toussaint. After studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Dubois went to Rome. His first contributions to the Paris Salon (1860) were busts of The Countess de B. and A Child. For his first statues, St John the Baptist and Narcissus at the Bath (1863), he was awarded a medal of the second class. The statue of The Infant St John, which had been modelled in Florence in 1860, was exhibited in Paris in bronze, and was acquired by the Luxemburg. A Florentine Singer of the Fifteenth Century, one of the most popular statuettes in Europe, was shown in 1865; The Virgin and Child appeared in the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1867; The Birth of Eve was produced in 1873, and was followed by striking busts of Henner, Dr Parrot, Paul Baudry, Pasteur, Gounod and Bonnat, remarkable alike for life, vivacity, likeness, refinement and subtle handling. The chief work of Paul Dubois was The Tomb of General Lamoricire in the cathedral of Nantes, a brilliant masterpiece conceived in the Renaissance spirit, with allegorical figures and groups representing Warlike Courage, Charity, Faith and Meditation, as well as has-reliefs and enrichments; the two first-named works were separately exhibited in the Salon of 1877. The medallions represent Wisdom, Hope, Justice, Force, Rhetoric, Prudence and Religion. The statue of the Constable Anne de Montmorency was executed for Chantilly, and that of Joan of Arc (1889) for the town of Reims. The Italian influence which characterized the earlier work of Dubois disappeared as his own individuality became clearly asserted. As a painter he restricted himself mainly to portraiture. My Children (1876) being probably his most noteworthy achievement. His drawings and copies after the Old Masters are of peculiar excellence: they include The Dead Christ (after Sebastiano del Piombo) and Adam and Eve (after Raphael). In 1873 Dubois was appointed keeper of the Luxemburg Museum. He succeeded Guillaume as director of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, 1878, and Perraud as member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts. Twice at the Salon he obtained the medal of honor (1865 and 1876), and once at the Universal Exhibition (1878). He also won numerous other distinctions, and was appointed grand cross of the Legion of Honor. He was made a member of several European orders, and in 1895 was elected an honorary foreign academician of the Royal Academy of London. He died at Paris in 1905.

Source: Entry on the artist in the 1911 Edition Encyclopedia.