Hippolyte Dominique Berteaux

1843-1928 French

French muralist and portrait painter

Hippolyte-Dominique Berteaux was a French painter who specialized in murals and portraits. He studied painting at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, where he worked in the studios of Hippolyte Flandrin, Léon Cogniet and Paul Baudry. From 1872 to 1875, he was employed as "Painter to the Sultan" in Istanbul. He then moved to Nantes, where he created portraits, genre scenes and landscapes; with the local dunes being a favorite subject. He also devoted himself to decorative painting. His most notable works of that type are the murals on the ceiling of the Théâtre Graslin, and the staircases at the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Hôtel de Ville [fr]. Later, he would decorate a ceiling section at the Petit Luxembourg He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français [fr], where he obtained a second-class medal in 1885. After that, he would exhibit "out of competition". Beginning in 1901, he sent his works to be shown at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts In 1891, he was named a Knight in the Legion of Honor; becoming an Officer in 1923. He is interred at the Cimetière du Montparnasse. His works may be seen at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Carcassonne [fr], Musée d'Arts de Nantes, Musée d'Orsay, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Quimper and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes.