Jean ALAUX, known as "the Roman", is a French painter, born January 5, 1785 in Bordeaux, and died March 3, 1864 in Paris. His family, better known under the name "the dynasty of Alaux", descend in a straight line from Joseph ALAUX (born around 1712 and died on July 31, 1782 in Lautrec), painter, decorator and master upholsterer in Lautrec, "patriarche" of this dynasty of painters and architects from Gironde - mainly Bordeaux and Arcachon - and Tarn, known since the beginning of the 18th century. Jean ALAUX is the second son of the painter Pierre-Joseph ALAUX (born in 1756 in Lautrec (Tarn)) and of Marie-Rose GRAS-LASALLE (born in 1762 in Lautrec). He is the brother of the painter Jean-Pierre ALAUX, dit Ozou, (1783, Lautrec - 1858, Vanves) and the painter and lithographer Jean-Paul ALAUX dit Gentil (1788, Bordeaux - 1858, Bordeaux). Husband of the artist-painter Fanny ALAUX, he is the ancestor of the painter Jean-Pierre ALAUX (1925-1920). Jean ALAUX is admitted to the School of Fine Arts in Bordeaux where he is a student of Pierre LACOUR. He was then admitted to the École des beaux-arts de Paris in the studio of Pierre-Narcisse GUERIN, where he was a fellow student of Horace VERNET. After having won the second prize in Rome in 1814, he won the first prize in Rome in 1815. Alaux stayed as a resident in Rome at the Medici villa from 1817 to 1821 where he befriended INGRES; in 1818, the latter produced two portraits of him in graphite, while ALAUX produced the painting "L'Atelier d'Ingres", one of his best-known works. Painter of history, he enjoys wide artistic and institutional recognition. He exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1824 and obtained a 1st class medal there from his first participation. Appointed Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1828, he was promoted to officer of the same order in 1841. Director of the Académie de France in Rome from 1847 to 1852, he was elected member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1851. Under the July Monarchy, Alaux became Louis-Philippe's favorite painter. The latter entrusted him with the entire decoration of the General Hall of the Palace of Versailles. ALAUX also participated in the decoration of the Gallery of Battles for which he painted several paintings. In 1854, Napoleon III chose him for the decoration of the large dome of the Luxembourg Palace, which he wanted on the theme of the glorification of Napoleon I. ALAUX was entrusted with the restoration of the frescoes of Rosso FIORENTINO in the Galerie François I at the Château de Fontainebleau in 1858, as well as those of Francesco PRIMATICCIO, dit le Primatice in the Galerie Henri II.