The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Müller, Charles Louis

MÜLLER, Charles Louis, French painter: b. Paris, 22 Dec. 1815; d. there, 10 Jan. 1892. He was the pupil of L. Cogniet, Baron Gros and others in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and in 1850 was made director of the manufactory of Gobelin tapestries. His fertility in the production of historic pictures and portraits was amazing. Among them are ‘Heliogahalus’ (1841); ‘Primavera’ (1846); ‘May-day’; ‘Lady Macbeth’; and his masterpiece, ‘The Last Victims to the Reign of Terror’; the last two being in the Luxembourg; ‘Vive l'Empereur’ (1855); ‘Marie Antoinette’ (1857); ‘A Mass During the Reign of Terror’ (1863); ‘The Madness of King Lear’ (1875); ‘Mater Dolorosa’ (1877). He executed the frescoes of the Salle d'Etat in the Louvre, and as a painter is more to be commended for clever drawing and composition than for his somewhat flat and mediocre coloring. In 1864 he became a member of the Institute.