|
|
|
Jules Dupré was born in Nantes on the 5th of April, 1811. Both his father and his uncle were porcelain manufacturers. It was clear from a very early age that Dupré had both artistic inclination and skill. The young Dupré spent most of his formative years decorating plates in his father’s factory in Parmain and in his uncle’s in Svres. When his father was appointed director of the Coussac porcelain factory in Saint-Yrieix, Dupré went with him. It was here in the countryside of Limosin that he fell in love with nature. He explored the country and when not decorating plates he painted simple landscape studies. Eventually he travelled to Paris to study with Jean-Michel Diebolt (1779-unknown), the landscape and animal painter.
|
 |
|
|
|
In 1831, at only twenty years old, Dupré made his Salon debut. He showed several landscapes. That same year he was invited to London where he studied the work of English landscape artists. He was particularly fond of and was heavily influenced by the work of John Constable (1776-1837). Years later, Dupré would bring back what he learned in England to France. He was largely responsible for introducing the English landscape style to the group of artists that would become the Barbizon School.
|
|
|
|
One of these artists, Theodore Rousseau (1812-1867), became a close friend of Dupré. During the 1840’s the two travelled together across the French countryside in search of new subjects. They even shared a studio together where they painted side by side. Though their work shared many similarities, both, of course, choosing nature as their primary subject. Rousseau focused on the epic qualities of nature, while Dupré explored, instead, the tragic and dramatic aspects of his environment.
|
|
|
|
|
In 1833 Dupré exhibited at the Salon again, this time earning a second-class medal. However, it was his submission of "View of the Fields near Southampton" in 1835 that cemented his reputation as a leading Romantic artist and earned him praise and accolades from critics and artists alike. In 1849, he was awarded the Legion d’Honneur. By the 1850’s, he was exhibiting at the Salon less and less. He began spending his summers in the coastal town of Cayeaux-sur-Mer where he painted marine and shoreline landscapes. Millet and Courbet would eventually join him during his summer sojourns. Though he sporadically exhibited at the Salon through 1883, much of Dupré’s later years were spent in isolation. He died on the 6th of October, 1889.
|
|