Henri Joseph Harpignies

Henri Harpignies (1819-1916) A Barrier on the hedge, study, signed drawing

circa 1860

Henri Joseph Harpignies was born in Valenciennes on June 28, 1819 and died in Saint-Privé onAugust 28 1916 He was a French landscape painter , watercolourist and engraver of the Barbizon School . Henri Harpignies' parents, Henri and Adèle, intended him for a commercial career, but his determination to become a painter led them to authorize him to enter Jean Achard 's studio in Paris in 1846. After two years of training, he left to travel to Italy . Returning to France in 1850, Henri Harpignies joined Corot and the Barbizon School, whose influence he came under. Bound by friendship, the two artists traveled to Italy together in 1860. In 1859, he collaborated in the decoration of the staff room of the Charité hospital in 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 in the Rome campaign, acquired by the State . He then lived at 185, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré in the 8th arrondissement of Paris 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 made 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 twice made his portrait in 1889 ( Musée des Beaux-Arts). He painted the stained glass windows of the Château de Trousse-Barrière in Briare in 1895. In 1898, he was named Rosati d'honneur . Anatole France called him “the Michelangelo of trees and peaceful countryside” . At the end of his life, he was nearly blind. He is buried in the cemetery of Saint-Privé ( Yonne ) . His works are held in numerous ublic collections : Such as Landscape with a City in the Distance (c.1865), watercolor, New York , Metropolitan Museum of Art . Montreal Museum of Fine Arts : Moonlight (1889) National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec : Mountain landscape Tulsa , Philbrook Museum of Art : Briare Railroad Bridge . Washington , National Gallery of Art : Landscape in Auvergne . Buenos Aires , National Museum of Fine Arts : The Briare Canal Lille , Palace of Fine Arts : View taken at Moncel-sur-Seille (Meurthe-et-Moselle)