Léon Belly

Léon Auguste Adolphe Belly, born in Saint-Omer on April 18, 1827 and died in Paris on March 24, 1877, was a French orientalist painter. Léon Belly is the son of Nicolas Joseph Belly, polytechnician (1805), artillery captain. He is a student of Constant Troyon and frequents members of the Barbizon School. At the end of 1850, in Trieste he joined the scientific mission of Félicien de Saulcy to Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt. His art then deals with orientalist subjects. In 1855 during his second trip he embarked in Marseille in the company of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, Jean-Léon Gérome, Édouard-Auguste Imer and his friend Narcisse Berchère with whom he crossed the Sinai in 1856. He made a third trip in 1857-1858 in Egypt. He was decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1862.