Adolphe
Alexandre Lesrel

Adolphe Alexandre Lesrel is a French painter born May 19, 1839 in Genêts, died February 25, 1929 in Genêts.

His parents are both Normans, originally from Genêts, in the Manche department. His father is a "ploughman", in other words a landowner. Adolphe Alexandre would therefore have been raised in a wealthy family. It was in 1861, at the age of 22, that Adolphe Alexandre Lesrel entered the School of Fine Arts in Paris, in the studio of the painter Jean-Léon Gérôme, one of the most important artists of the " firefighters". The documents concerning his schooling having disappeared today, we nevertheless know that he is registered under the number 221 of the Gérôme workshop, that is to say one of his first pupils. At that time, history painting was a finality at the École des Beaux-Arts. He will also have as master Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier. Lesrel will remain faithful to academicism throughout his life as a painter.