Born in Fourquevaux (near Toulouse) in 1838, Jean-Paul Laurens always cherished his country ties and remained particularly influenced by his southern origins. He was from a very modest background and started his career as a simple colour grinder for an itinerant Piedmontese master. He went on to receive training at the Fine Arts school in Toulouse (1854) and obtained a municipal grant to study in Paris (1860). Laurens often went to the studio of the history painter Léon Cogniet and there he met the woman he was to marry, Madeleine Willemsens (1869), the daughter of his first teacher. They had two sons. From 1860 onwards, he regularly participated in the Salon. He was noticed for his portrayal of Pope Formose and Etienne VII (1870) and also for The Death of the Duke of Enghien (1873). He became increasingly popular and had his own retrospective exhibition at the Universal Exposition in Paris (1878). Henceforth, he was among the most respected artists of his time, revered by Rodin and later Péguy and Gide. A convinced democrat, moderately anticlerical and close to republican circles, Jean-Paul Laurens joined the Higher Committee for Fine Arts (1880), and he occupied a consultative position with the ministry of Public Art Instruction, then with the administrative commission at the Fine Arts school in Paris (1881). His reputation was finally established when he was chosen to replace Meissonier in the Fine Arts Academy (1891). Finally, he became director of the Fine Arts school in Toulouse (1893), where he trained many of his own students. During the beginnings of the Third Republic, Laurens decorated large monumental ensembles, particularly in Paris and Toulouse, placing him in a privileged position at the service of the public commission. Jean-Paul Laurens died in his studio in Paris on 23rd March 1921. He was rendered unanimous homage, albeit discrete, and a short time afterwards his name and his works were to be buried under the sands of time.