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Jean Ferdinand Chaigneau Biography
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Jean-Ferdinand Chaigneau was born in the shipping center of Bordeaux on March 6th, 1830. There he studied drawing under the academic painter Jean-Paul Alaux (1788-1858). In 1847, he moved to Paris to continue his studies with his uncle, a marine painter. In 1848, he submitted a landscape painting, "Souvenir des Environ de Bordeaux," to the non-juried Salon (the Revolution of 1848 had suspended the normal Salon restrictions). In 1849, Chaigneau entered the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts, encouraged by Jacques Raymond Brascassat (1804- 1867), a family friend and successful animal painter. There he studied under Francois Edouard Picot (1798-1860) and Jacques Brascassat. It was from his studies with Bracassat that fueled his desire to paint landscapes and animals.
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For many years most of Chaigneau’s art was in the academic tradition. But in 1854 he was awarded an artistic stipend from his hometown of Bordeaux and in that same year, as a result of his failure at the Concours de Rome (winning only a third place medal), he began to turn away from his academic training. In 1858 he moved to the village of Barbizon where he came in contact with Jean Francois Millet (1814- 1875), Theodore Rousseau (1812- 1867), Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796- 1875), Jules Dupre (1811-1889), Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817- 1878) and Charles-Emile Jacque and other artists then living and working in Barbizon. They had all established the Barbizon school of landscape art as a viable alternative to the Academy.
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Chaigneau's work, as the others, was rooted in nature. His landscape subjects included scenes from Bordelais, Landes, Limousin and Normandy in addition to scenes from the Fontainebleau Forest. His shepherding and harvesting subjects have strong echoes of Millet, Rousseau and Jacque, his closest colleagues among the older generation of Barbizon artists.
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