Decreed on contest, it was created in 1907 under the impulse of Léonce Bénédite, curator of the Museum of Luxembourg and Claude Jonnart, general governor of Algeria, in order to make it possible to young talented artists to remain one year or two, sometimes more, with the expenses of the State in the Villa Abd-el-Tif in Algiers.
Bénédite was the first art historian to explicitly acknowledge the similarities between Manet's Olympia and Titian's Venus of Urbino.
Leonce and Lena | Léonce Laugier | Léonce Girardot | Léonce Bénédite |
The Curator of the Museum, Léonce Bénédite, received permission from the Undersecretary of Arts to purchase 12 of Launois’ drawings for 500 French francs.