Julien Dupré Biography | Oil Painting Reproductions

Julien Dupré was born to a jeweler and began working at a young age in a lace shop with expectations of later joining his family's jewelry business. The Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and the siege of Paris forced the shop to close so Julien began taking night courses at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and it was through these classes that he gained admission to the École des Beaux-Arts.

At the Ecole Julien Dupré studied with Isidore Pils and Henri Lehmann. In the mid-1870s he traveled to Picardy and became a student of the rural genre painter Désiré François Laugée, whose daughter Marie Eléonore Françoise he would marry in 1876. That same year he exhibited his first painting at the Paris Salon and became a regular exhibitor at the Salon until his death. In 1880 Julien Dupré was awarded a third-class medal for Les Faucheurs de Luzerne (The Reapers of Lucerne) and the following year he received a second-class medal for his La Recolte des Foins (The Harvesting of the Hay). He finally won his prized gold medal at the Paris Fair of 1889 and in 1892 was further awarded the Legion of Honor. His work was sought after internationally and the United States became a very good market for his oil paintings. Julien Dupré idealized the life of the peasant in Normandy and Brittany and continued painting there until his death.

Acknowledging his mastery at portraying both animals and humans powerfully, yet gracefully, one cannot help but pay tribute to his immense talent in being able to re-create nature's light on canvas, a feat that many have attempted but few have succeeded in accomplishing.

Art Movement: Academic, Realism.
Artists Influencing Julien Dupré: Isidore Pils, Henri Lehmann, Désiré Laugée.
Artist's Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.