![Thomas Couture - The Courtesan [1873]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3873/14416421012_aa813ecbef_o.jpg)
Thomas Couture (Senlis, December 21, 1815 - Villiers-le-Bel, March 30, 1879) was an influential French painter and teacher. In 1840, he began exhibiting historical and genre pictures at the Paris Salon, earning several medals for his works, in particular for his 1847 masterpiece, Romans in the Decadence of the Empire. Shortly after this success, Couture opened an independent atelier meant to challenge the École des Beaux-Arts by turning out the best new history painters. Asked by a publisher to write an autobiography, Couture responded "Biography is the exaltation of personality - and personality is the scourge of our time."
[Museum of Fine Arts, Rennes - Oil on canvas]