Edouard Alexandre Sain Biography
Édouard Sain (Cluny, 13 May 1830 – Paris, 26 June 1910) was a French painter. Édouard Alexandre Sain was born in Cluny, son of Paul-François-Toussaint Sain and Palmire-Ernestine Bouchet. His father was a tax collector and did not influence his son's artistic vocation. Édouard, already inclined towards art as a child, attended the high schools of art and drawing in Valenciennes (known as the "Academy of Valenciennes") and was then admitted, in 1847, to the École des beaux-arts in Paris. Here he became a pupil of François-Édouard Picot. After completing his art studies, Sain made his debut at the painting Salon in 1853 and continued to exhibit there until, on two occasions, he was awarded a medal. Sain was initially a history and genre painter. Much of his inspiration and ideas he drew from his travels, first in the Pyrenees, then in Italy. Later, however, starting from the end of the 1870s, he dedicated himself only to the execution of portraits and female nudes. He was linked by a great friendship with the painter Carolus-Duran, who, in 1877, gave him his decoration of Knight of the Légion d'honneur and painted his portrait. In 1894 he was named "Rosati" of honor. Édouard Sain died in Paris at the age of 80, in the middle of the 20th century.
