Léonce Bénédite

Léonce Bénédite (14 January 1856 – 12 May 1925) was a French art historian and curator. He was director of the Musée du Luxembourg, Paris before becoming first curator of the Musée Rodin.^[1]

Bénédite was born in Nîmes. He founded the Société des Peintres Orientalistes Français in 1893 with Alphonse-Étienne Dinet.^[2] He also founded the Abd-el-Tif prize for bursaries at the Villa Abd-el-Tif together with the then French governor of Algeria. He died in Paris, aged 69.

Bénédite was the first art historian to explicitly acknowledge the similarities between Manet's Olympia and Titian's Venus of Urbino.^[3]

References

1. Nottingham French studies: Volumes 29-31 University of Nottingham - 1990 "When Leonce Bénédite was preparing the opening of the museum. Mauclair sent him a copy of his book: 'Je tiens beaucoup à ce que le plus de témoignages que possible de mon amitié combative pour Rodin "
2. The Grove encyclopedia of Islamic art and architecture: Volume 2 - Page 50 Jonathan M. Bloom, Sheila Blair - 2009 "He became so interested in North Africa that on his return to Paris in 1887 he founded the Société des Peintres Orientalistes Français, with Léonce Bénédite (1859–1925) as its president. He then studied Arabic and eventually converted to"
3. Reff, Theodore. (1976) Manet: Olympia. London: Allen Lane, p. 48. ISBN 0713908076