Delphin Enjolras

French, 1857-1945

Delphin Enjolras was born in 1857 at Coucouron in the Ardèche. Enjolras studied under the watercolourist Gaston Gérard at the École de dessin de la ville de Paris. As well as having formal artistic training studying under the celebrated teacher Jean-Léon Gérôme at the Beaux-Arts, and Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret. He painted some fine landscapes in his early career, in particular those hanging in the Musée du Puy, and the Musée Calvet d’Avignon. However it became apparent that his love was for painting women and the majority of Enjolras’s oil paintings and pastels depict young ladies illuminated by lamplight or black lighting. His subjects are often engaged in simple domestic pursuits such as reading, sewing or flower arranging, although at times, he sought a more intimate portrayal. He would become an excellent painter of nudes, and many of his later works, such as ‘La Sieste’ are of an erotic and sensual nature. From 1890 and onwards, Enjolras exhibited his works at the Paris Salon, joining the Société des Artistes Français in 1901 and he featured at the Salon of this Society. The Museum of Puy holds a work by him titled ‘Le Donjon de Polignac’, and the Museum at Avignon has ‘Provinciale’.