Théodore Chassériau (born Sept. 20, 1819, Samana, Dominican Republic-died Oct. 8, 1856, Paris), French painter who attained some measure of success in his attempt to fuse the Neoclassicism of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and the Romanticism of Eugène Delacroix.
As a boy, Chassériau entered the studio of Ingres, following his master to Rome in 1834. Chassériau’s immediate success at the Paris Salon of 1836 was confirmed three years later by a Venus and his “Suzanne”, both in the Louvre. About 1840, however, he began to grow dissatisfied with the art of Ingres.