Prudent-Louis Leray, (29 August 1820 – 25 May 1879) was a French painter and lithographer.
Born in Couëron, Leray was the son of a famous doctor from Nantes who distinguished himself during the 1832 cholera pandemic. After studying as a scholarship student at the college in Nantes, Leray entered the city school of fine arts.[1] [2] [3]
A pupil of Paul Delaroche,[4] Leray exhibited for the first time at the Salon in 1848. Since then, his works have appeared with great success at all the annual Salons.[1]
Gifted with a fine and delicate talent, Leray excelled at genre paintings, where coquetry and grace give a poetic character. Very meticulous in the details of his compositions, his canvases constitute a veritable museum of the costume of the Louis XV period, a period that he particularly liked.[1] [5]
Leray died as a result of a stroke he had suffered four days earlier, while painting in his workshop on .[1] He was 58 of age.[6]