Henri-Paul Motte (13 December 1846 – 1 April 1922) was a French painter from Paris, who specialised in history painting and historical genre.

Motte was a pupil of Jean-Léon Gérôme and began to exhibit at the Paris Salon from 1874 onwards. The painting Le cheval de Troie (The Trojan horse) was the artist’s début at the Salon, and was acquired by the Wadsworth Atheneum in 2011. In 1892 he was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur. He won a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle (1900). He is best known for his work of the Siege of La Rochelle ( first image below ), a depiction of Cardinal Richelieu in battle in the 17th century, completed in 1881.

I came across Motte’s art work on twitter by chance and was immediately struck by the bold sense of drama in his paintings as well as his expert depiction of epic scale, and the visuals immediately reminded me of Ridley Scott’s period films like Gladiator or Kingdom Of Heaven.

Interestingly enough, Ridley Scott used a painting titled Pollice Verso (1872) as a visual inspiration for Gladiator, and the painting was done by none other than Motte’s mentor Jean-Léon Gérôme.

Henri-Paul Motte seemed not to have painted too many pieces of art work during his time, and I could not find many more beyond what I posted on this page, and this might also be the reason why there hasn’t been any of his art books published ( that I know of ), which is quite a shame.


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