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Thomas Couture (December 21, 1815 – March
30, 1879) was an influential French history
painter and teacher.

He was born at Senlis Oise, France and at age 11,
Thomas Couture's family moved to Paris where he
would study at the industrial arts school (École
des Arts et Métiers) and later at the École des
Beaux-Arts. He failed the prestigious Prix de Rome
competition at the École six times, but he felt
the problem was with the École, not himself.
Couture finally did win the prize in 1837.

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 his this success, Couture
opened an independent atelier meant to challenge
the École des Beaux-Arts by turning out the best
new history painters.

Couture's innovative technique gained much
attention and he received Government and Church
commissions for murals during the late 1840s
through the 1850s. However, he never completed the
first two commissions, while the third met with
mixed criticism. Upset by the unfavorable
reception of his murals, in 1860 he left Paris for
a time returning to his hometown of Senlis where
he continued to teach young artists who came to
him. In 1867 he thumbed his nose at the academic
establishment by publishing a book on his own
ideas and working methods.

During his lifetime, Couture taught such later
luminaries of the art world as Edouard Manet,
Henri Fantin-Latour, and Pierre Puvis de
Chavannes.

Asked by a publisher to do an autobiography,
Thomas Couture responded with words that are even
more appropriate today: "Biography is the
exaltation of personality --- and personality is
the scourge of our time."

Thomas Couture died at Villiers-le-Bel,
Île-de-France and was interred in the Père
Lachaise|Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France.

commonscat|Thomas Couture