(b Paris, 22 April 1805; d Pau, 3 Feb 1865). Painter, brother of (1) Achille Devéria. He was a pupil of Anne-Louis Girodet and Guillaume Lethière but was greatly influenced by his brother. Despite differences of taste and temperament—Eugène had an official career and painted on a grand scale—the brothers remained close until Eugène went to Avignon in 1838. He first exhibited at the Salon of 1824 and had his first success with the Birth of Henry IV (1827; Paris, Louvre). He approached this well-worn subject (made fashionable by the Restoration and usually portrayed in engravings or small-scale works) with unusual panache. The ambitious scale, the crowds of people painstakingly depicted in period costume and the rich colours revealed his desire to raise the subject to the rank of history painting. With Delacroix and Louis Boulanger, Devéria was hailed as a champion of the Romantic movement and the successor to Veronese and Rubens.

Part of the Devéria family

• Devéria, Eugène(-François-Marie-Joseph)
  • France, §III, 5(ii): Painting & prints, c 1814–c 1914: Romanticism, classicism & plein-air studies
  • History painting, §II, 2: Romanticism and historical genre
  • dealers
    • Binant
  • groups and movements
    • Rococo Revival
    • Romanticism, §3(ii): Manifestations in art: Painting
    • Troubadour style
  • patrons and collectors
    • Gaugain, Henri
  • pupils
    • Glaize, Auguste-Barthélemy
  • teachers
    • Girodet, Anne-Louis, §2: Working methods and technique