Léon Cogniet (29 August 1794 – 20 November 1880) was a French historical and portrait painter.
Cogniet was born in Paris. In 1812, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied under Pierre-Narcisse Guérin at the same time as Delacroix and Géricault.[citation needed] In 1817 he won the Prix de Rome and was a resident at the Villa Medici from 1817 to 1822.[citation needed] His first picture of note was Marius among the Ruins of Carthage (1824). He decorated several ceilings in the Louvre and the Halle de Godiaque in the Hôtel de Ville, Paris, and a chapel in the church of Madeleine.[citation needed] At first he painted in classical style, but later adopted the methods of the Romanticists.
He died in Paris in 1880.