Daubigny, CHARLES FRANÇOIS

Daubigny, CHARLES FRANÇOIS, landscape-painter and etcher, born in Paris in 1817, studied under his father, who was a miniature-painter, Paul Delaroche, and others, and from 1838 exhibited in the Salon, although his full recognition came only after the artist had reached his fiftieth year. He devoted himself to close and sympathetic study from nature, working much on the Seine in a house-boat, and developed a style of landscape art marked by singularly unaffected fidelity and originality. In 1853 he gained a first-class medal with his 'Pool of Gylrien.' In 1857 he produced his 'Spring-time;' in 1861, 'The Banks of the Oise;' in 1872, 'Windmills at Dordrecht;' and in 1877, his large and very impressive 'Rising Moon.' His 'Sluices in the Valley of Optevos' (1855) and his 'Vintage' (1863) are in the Luxembourg Gallery. He is also known as a book-illustrator and as a vigorous etcher, having produced over a hundred plates, some reproductions, others direct from nature, marked by great frankness of method and free painter-like quality. He died in Paris, 19th February 1878.