Galerie Paul Prouté

Although he was destined to take over the family business, Henri Harpignies developed a passion for drawing from childhood onward. His parents eventually sent him to the studio of Jean Achard in Paris—who was close to the Barbizon School painters—where he was introduced to landscape painting and engraving. It was under this master’s guidance that he discovered 16th- and 17th-century Flemish landscape paintings, whose realism and aesthetic appeal left a lasting impression on him. After a trip to Italy, he joined Corot and the Barbizon School. Although he created decorative works for the Paris Opera, it was in the landscapes of the Bourbonnais, the Nivernais, and the Auvergne that Harpignies found his primary sources of inspiration for his paintings. Beginning in 1885, he regularly spent his winters in the south of France, near Menton. Harpignies suffered from vision problems toward the end of his life and produced only monochromatic landscapes at La Trémellerie, his estate in Saint-Privé.