Alexandre Cabanel
Exactly on this day in 1823, Alexandre Cabanel, a French painter who painted historical, classical, and religious subjects in the academic style, was born. His most famous work is The Birth of Venus, which you can admire in our archive.
The Fallen Angel was first seen in 1868, when Cabanel was at the height of his fame and well into his maturity as an artist. Just look at the flaming red hair, the muscular intensity, the simmering anger, and the fierce resentment that Cabanel captures in the body and especially in the eyes of the angel. The Fallen Angel is an authentic masterpiece of late Romanticism.