George David Coulon (November 14, 1822 – February 28, 1904) was a French-born artist, born in

Seloncourt Seloncourt () is a commune in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. Geography Seloncourt lies from Montbéliard on the banks of the Gland, which flows into the Doubs at Audincourt. It is only from Swi ...

Life

When he was ten years old, his family moved to

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, USA. According to Coulon, "as a child, I made drawings and colored them with indigo, the juice of herbs and berries." His father, Georges-Louis Coulon (January 1, 1801-?), wanted him to apprentice in his watchmaker shop, but after a few trial months, he decided to follow his "natural inclination." He studied in New Orleans with Toussaint Bigot,

Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away f ...

, François Fleischbein, Julien Hudson, and

Jacques Amans Jacques Guillaume Lucien Amans (1801–1888) was a French Neoclassicism, neoclassical portrait painter working in New Orleans in the 1840s and 1850s.Gerdts, William H., Art Across America, River Cross Press (Abbeville Press), Vol II, p. 94, 1990 ...

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

with

Anne-Louis Girodet Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (; or ''de Roucy''), also known as Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson or simply Girodet (29 January 17679 December 1824),Long, George. (1851) ''The Supplement to the Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion ...

. He received instruction in decorative painting under Antonio Mondelli.

Work

Coulon assisted Leon Pomarede in painting a copy of Raphael's Transfiguration above the altar of St. Patrick's Church and helped fresco the ceiling of the criminal court in the Cabildo. Known for his landscapes, portraits, and religious paintings, Coulon worked as an artist and teacher in New Orleans for more than fifty years. He was one of the founders of the Southern Art Union and the Artists' Association of New Orleans. George David Coulon married Marie-Paoline Casbergue (1831–1914), a New Orleans native and artist in her own right known for still lifes of birds and game. They had two children, Mary Elizabeth Emma Coulon (1859–1928) and George Joseph Amede Coulon (1854–1922), who were also well-known artists.

References

External links

The Cabildo
KnowLA- Encyclopedia of Louisiana, George David Coulon encyclopedia entry 1822 births 1904 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters Artists from New Orleans French emigrants to the United States Painters from Louisiana 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists {{US-painter-1820s-stub