Henri Harpignies
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
landscape painter
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...
of the Barbizon school
Barbizon school
The Barbizon school of painters were part of a movement towards realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870...
.
He was born at Valenciennes
Valenciennes
Valenciennes is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It lies on the Scheldt river. Although the city and region had seen a steady decline between 1975 and 1990, it has since rebounded...
. His parents intended for him to pursue a business career, but his determination to become an artist was so strong that it conquered all obstacles, and he was allowed at the age of twenty-seven to enter Jean Achard
Jean Achard
Jean Alexis Achard was a French painter.-Biography:Born in Voreppe, Isère, into a farming family, Jean Alexis Achard was self-taught and started his career as a clerk for a lawyer. He began his apprenticeship by copying paintings at the Museum of Grenoble...
's atelier
Atelier Method
Atelier is the French word for "workshop", and in English is used principally for the workshop of an artist in the fine or decorative arts, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students and apprentices worked together producing pieces that went out in the master's name...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. From this painter he acquired a groundwork of sound constructive draughtsmanship, which is so marked a feature of his landscape painting. After two years under this exacting teacher he went to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, whence he returned in 1850.
During the next few years he devoted himself to the painting of children in landscape setting, and fell in with Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was a French landscape painter and printmaker in etching. Corot was the leading painter of the Barbizon school of France in the mid-nineteenth century...
and the other Barbizon masters
Barbizon school
The Barbizon school of painters were part of a movement towards realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870...
, whose principles and methods are to a certain extent reflected in his own personal art. To Corot he was united by a bond of warm friendship, and the two artists went together to Italy in 1860.
On his return, he scored his first great success at the Salon, in 1861, with his Lisière de bois sur les bords de l'Allier. After that year he was a regular exhibitor at the old Salon; in 1886 he received his first medal for Le Soir dans la campagne de Rome, which was acquired for the Luxembourg Gallery.
Many of his best works were painted at Hérisson in the central France region of Bourbonnais
Bourbonnais
Bourbonnais was a historic province in the centre of France that corresponded to the modern département of Allier, along with part of the département of Cher. Its capital was Moulins.-History:...
, as well as in the Nivernais
Nivernais
Nivernais is former province of France, around the city of Nevers and the département of Nièvre.The raw climate and soils cause the area to be heavily wooded.- References :* Chamber's Encyclopedia Volume 10 page 50...
and Auvergne
Auvergne (province)
Auvergne was a historic province in south central France. It was originally the feudal domain of the Counts of Auvergne. It is now the geographical and cultural area that corresponds to the former province....
regions. Among his chief pictures are:
- Soir sur les bords de la Loire (1861)
- Les Corbeaux (1865)
- Le Soir (1866)
- Le Saut-du-Loup (1873)
- La Loire (1882)
- Vue de Saint-Privé (1883).
He also did some decorative work for the Paris Opéra—the Vallée d'Egérie panel, which he showed at the Salon of 1870.
He had numerous students, among them Émile Appay
Émile Appay
Émile Appay was a French landscape painter.He studied under Henri-Joseph Harpignies and Paul Lecomte. He was a friend of André Derain.Some exhibitions of Appay in different galleries in Paris :* Galerie Georges Petit...
(1876–1935), Jeanne Rongier, Jane Le Soudier (1885–1976), Louis-Alexandre Cabié, Pierre Vignal, Raymond Verdun, and Émile Dardoize (1826–1901).