Jules-Cyrille Cave was born in Paris 14th January 1859. He studied under Tony Robert-Fleury (1837-1912) a painter of historical genre and Professor of the Académie Julian and also under the great Salon painter of the 19th Century, William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905). It was to this latter teacher that Cave owed a profound debt; he was to be a significant influence both stylistically, and in terms of subject and treatment, throughout his career.

Cave found early success in 1886, being awarded a 3rd class medal and becoming a member of the ‘Sociétaires des Artistes Français’ in 1887, winning further accolades, and bronze medals in 1889 and 1900. He painted portrait commissions, religious and allegorical subjects in the Salon tradition, young girls, genre and still life. Cave’s portraits of young girls and allegorical subjects were painted very much in Bouguereau’s vein, and he found success in France and the United States. ‘Head of a Young Girl’ - possibly our painting - was in the collection of George N. Tyner and sold in New York in 1901.