Léon Pierre Bernard VIARDOT, born December 1, 1805 in Dijon and died December 15, 1899 in Paris, is a French painter, brother of Louis VIARDOT, French writer, art historian, art critic, theatrical figure, and translator, married to Pauline VIARDOT (born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline GARCIA), a leading nineteenth-century French mezzo-soprano, pedagogue, and composer of Spanish descent. Léon VIARDOT was a student of Ary SCHEFFER and François-Édouard PICOT. Léon VIARDOT belonged to a family of precisely famous artists. It is therefore in an environment where the celebrities of the time met that Leon Viardot lived. From 1831 he exhibited at the Salon the portraits of period celebrities, such as Count Orsini, Désiré Nisard, etc. He also painted hunting scenes and some history paintings. He obtained a 2nd class medal at the Salon of 1835.