Le Jardinier

1 November 1848

Born

1867

Goes to Paris to study under Cabanel

He grows up in Damvillers: his father, a vine-grower who was himself an artist, becomes his first teacher, his parents buy him prints of paintings to copy, and his first formal training is at Verdun. In 1867 (other accounts say 1868) the young man goes to Paris and is admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts under Alexandre Cabanel, taking first place for drawing though he mostly works alone; at the school he befriends Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret, and Jean-Eugène Buland is a fellow student.

1870

Wounded in the Franco-Prussian War

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 Bastien-Lepage fights and is severely wounded. After the war he returns to his home village to paint the villagers and recover from the wound.

1874

First Salon success: a medal for “Portrait of My Grandfather”

“Portrait of My Grandfather” wins critical acclaim and a third-class medal. The painter also shows “Song of Spring”, an academically minded study of rural life: a peasant girl sits on a knoll above a village, surrounded by wood nymphs.

1876

A second attempt at the Prix de Rome fails

With “Priam at the Feet of Achilles” (now in Lille) Bastien-Lepage again misses the Prix de Rome: a year earlier he had taken second place in the competition with “Angels Appearing to the Shepherds”, later shown again at the 1878 Exposition Universelle. The failure leads him to resolve to return to country life.

10 December 1884

Died