COMERRE Léon-François

He was a student of the painter Alphonse Colas. In 1867 he was awarded a gold medal at the Académie de Lille and a scholarship from the Département du Nord which enabled him to continue his studies in Paris.
In 1868, he entered the studio of Alexandre Cabanel, and was influenced by Orientalist painters, and was then admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. There he obtained the great medal awarded by the Minister of Fine Arts.
Léon-François Comerre exhibited for the first time at the Paris Salon of 1871 with a portrait entitled L’Italienne. He presented his work again in 1874 and then in 1875, when he obtained a 3rd class medal for Cassandre.
He received the Prix de Rome in History Painting in 1875 for The Announcement to the Shepherds. The city of Lille, very honored that, for the first time, one of its students from the Academic School of Lille receives this grand prize, awards him by gold medal.
After a short study stay in Belgium and Holland, he resided in Italy at the Villa Medici from January 1876 to December 1879.
Installed in Paris in a private mansion where he has a workshop at 67 rue Ampère. He will remain there until his death. He was elected municipal councilor of Vésinet from 1904 to 1908, under the mandate of Gaston de Casteran. In 1909, he was named Honorary Rosati.
His wife, Jacqueline Comerre-Paton (1859-1955), is also a painter.
The estate of her granddaughter, Denise Léon-Comerre, put her grandfather’s studio collection (343 lots) on the art market on February 3, 2003. The town of Trélon acquired there eight paintings including the Study of a female head on a blue background, The Feathered Hat, The Little Girl with the Hoop, The Wink, Woman in Ball Gown and Woman with Black Hat.