Édouard Debat-Ponsan was a French academic painter.

Biography

A pupil of Cabanel, Debat-Ponson was famous for his portraits of wealthy citizens and politicians in Paris, paintings of ancient history and scenes of peasant life. As a Republican and veteran of the War of 1870, Debat-Ponsan engaged in the struggle for rehabilitation of Captain Alfred Dreyfus

Alfred Dreyfus

Alfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history...

], he exhibited his allegorical painting Vérité sortant du puits (shown here) at the 1898 Salon,

later offered to Emile Zola

Émile Zola

Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...

. He was Father of the architect and Grand Prix de Rome winner in 1912, Jacques Debat-Ponsan, and grandfather of Michel Debré

Michel Debré

Michel Jean-Pierre Debré was a French Gaullist politician. He is considered the "father" of the current Constitution of France, and was the first Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic...

, who became Prime Minister under General Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

 and was one of the drafters of the Fifth Republic

French Fifth Republic

The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system...

. Other descendants include the politician Jean-Louis Debré

Jean-Louis Debré

Jean-Louis Debré is a conservative French political figure. He was President of the National Assembly of France from 2002 to 2007 and has been President of the Constitutional Council since 2007.-Biography:Debré was born in Toulouse...

. His daughter Jeanne Debat-Ponsan married Robert Debré

Robert Debré

Robert Debré was a French physician at Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris.He gave his name to the most important ....

 founder of modern pediatrics in France (see Debré family

Debré family

The Debré family is a French family including several prominent politicians and physicians. The family's ancestor, rabbi Simon Debré, was born in Westhoffen, Alsace....

).