| Henri
Joseph Harpignies, French (1819 - 1916)
Born into a bourgeois family of Belgian descent who established
a sugar beet factory, Henri Joseph Harpignies became seriously
interested in painting during an extended trip through France
in 1838. However, he first worked as a sales agent until
1848, when he entered the studio of landscape painter Jean-Alexis
Achard (1807-1884). Harpignies traveled to Crémieu
and Brussels with Achard but decided to return home upon
the outbreak of the revolution of 1848. After the revolution,
he traveled through southern Germany and to Italy, where
the natural surroundings made a strong impact on his work
and where he first became interested in watercolor.
He was accepted into the Salon of 1853 and exhibited there
regularly until 1912. Harpignies was influenced by Corot
(q.v.) and the other Barbizon painters and worked in their
manner. He traveled throughout France, visiting the forest
of Fontainebleau, the Pyrenees, Nevers, and other areas,
making landscape studies. He returned to Italy from 1863
through 1865, after his marriage to Marguerite Ventillard.
During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) he fought with
the National Guard at Hérisson, where he would return
each summer throughout the 1870s. Harpignies took on his
own private pupils, whom he taught his watercolor technique,
and his contract with the dealers Arnold & Tripp in
1883 secured his financial independence. During the final
decades of his life, he traveled often to La Trémellerie
at Saint-Privé and painted along the coast of Nice
and Menton.
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