(b Dijon, July 1842 or 1843; d Auvers-sur-Oise, Val d’Oise, June 8, 1888).
French painter and printmaker. After a rudimentary education he was employed by his brother-in-law, a photographer, to retouch negatives. He then moved to Paris where he supported himself by working as a photographer while training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Isidore-Alexandre-Augustin Pils. In Paris he became friendly with Emile Boilvin and also came to know Philippe Burty, Félix Bracquemond and Louis-Charles-Auguste Steinheil. Though he studied painting he also learnt to etch under Léon Gaucherel and Léopold Flameng and decided to devote himself to etching. He made his début at the Salon in 1865 with a drawing, but from 1868 he exhibited only etchings. His works, which were mainly reproductions of paintings by contemporary artists or by Old Masters such as Gainsborough, Rembrandt and Rubens, appeared in the journals L’Art and Gazette des beaux-arts and were also published by Galeries Goupil. He also produced original portrait etchings of contemporary writers including Turgenev, Tennyson and Théophile Gautier. In ...