Barbizon School Henri Joseph Harpignies Wooded Alley

Large charcoal drawing by Henri Joseph HARPIGNIES signed lower right and dated 1900, format without frame 43cm x 29cm format with frame 60cm x 46cm. Henri Joseph Harpignies' parents, Henri and Adèle, intended him for a commercial career, but his determination to become a painter led them to allow him to enter Jean Achard's studio in Paris in 1846. After two years of training, he left to travel in Italy. Back in France in 1850, Henri Harpignies devoted himself to children's bambochades in a landscape setting and joined Corot and the Barbizon School, whose influence he was influenced by. The two artists became friends and travelled together to Italy in 1860. In 1859, he collaborated on the decoration of the staff room at the Charité hospital in Paris, which was partially rebuilt at the Musée de l'Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris. On his return from Italy in 1861, he achieved his first success at the Salon with his Lisière de bois sur les bords de l'Allier. He then exhibited regularly at the Salon. In 1866, he received his first medal for Le Soir dans la campagne de Rome, acquired by the State. He then lived at 185, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré in the 8th arrondissement of Paris (where a commemorative plaque pays tribute to him) before moving to 9, rue Coëtlogon. During his very long career, Henri Harpignies painted a large number of works in Hérisson in the Bourbonnais, as well as in the Nivernais and Auvergne. He created decorative works for the Paris Opera, including the Val d'Égrie panel, which he exhibited at the Salon in 1870. He was a friend of Léon Bonnat, who painted his portrait twice in 1889 (Museum of Fine Arts in Valenciennes and Petit Palais in Paris). He painted the stained glass windows of the Château de Trousse-Barrière in Briare in 1895. In 1898, he was named Rosatid'honneur. Anatole France called him the "Michelangelo of trees and peaceful countryside." At the end of his life, he was almost blind. He is buried in the cemetery of Saint-Privé (Yonne). The comic strip Harpignies (Paquet, 2014), partly devoted to his life, was created by the cartoonist Elric Dufau-Harpignies, whose great-grandfather was a cousin of Henri Harpignies.