Biography

French painter/print artist. Born in Bordeaux. Began studying drawing at fifteen. Encountered the botanist Armand Clavaud and was exposed to the world of living organisms and literature, allowing him to obtain the future subjects for his paintings. Although he moved to Paris in 1864 to study painting, academic studies did not agree with him. He then learned the rudiments of copperplate printmaking from printmaker Rodolphe Bresdin. From 1878, he began producing lithographs, and the following year, he published his first album of prints, “Dans le Rêve (In the Dream).” In 1884, he became one of the founders of the Salon des Indépendants. In 1886, he participated in the last Impressionist exhibition. From 1899 onward, he shifted from monochromatic compositions to using a rich palette of colors in oil, watercolor and pastel paintings. He befriended literary Symbolists such as Joris-Karl Huysmans and Stéphane Mallarmé, and depicted fantastic scenes deriving from mythology and religion.