CONVERSATIONAL

FRENCH
TOPIC: ARTIST - PAINTER
 CAMILLE
PISSARRO
BIOGRAPHY:
Camille Pissarro, in full Jacob-Abraham-
Camille Pissarro, (born July 10, 1830, St.
Thomas, Danish West Indies—died Nov. 13,
1903, Paris, France), painter and printmaker
who was a key figure in the history of
Impressionism.
 LIFE AND WORKS:
He spent much of his time in its outskirts. Like many of his contemporaries, he preferred to
work in the open air rather than the studio, painting scenes of village life and the natural world.
During this period, he also became involved with his mother's maid, Julie Vellay, with whom he
would have eight children and eventually marry in 1871. However, their budding family life
was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, which forced them to flee to London.
Returning to his home in France at the end of the conflict, Pissarro discovered that most of his
existing body of work had been destroyed.
 EDUCATION:
He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and Académie
Suisse.
FAMOUS PAINTING:
B O U L E VA R D M O N T M A R T R E
 INVENTION OF NEW TECHNIQUE:
Pissaro adopted different styles throughout his four-decade
career as a painter. Working more in the style of Realism in
his early paintings, his paintings in the 1870s were became
Impressionist. In the 1890s, Pissarro adopted a Neo-
Impressionist style, although he later returned to
Impressionism.
Elisabeth Louise Vigée
Le Brun
Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun (1755–1842) was one
of the most successful portraitists of 18th century
France, gaining renowned for her self-portraits and
depictions of courtly women, Queen Marie Antoinette
most famously. Born in Paris as the eldest child of the
portraitist Louis Vigée(1715–1767) and Jeanne
Maissin, Vigée Le Brun was trained by her father from
an early age.
 LIFE AND WORKS:
Her father was a successful artist who encouraged her interest in art. She took lessons from
Gabriel Briard, and she received encouragement from well-known artists Joseph Vernet, Hubert
Robert, and Jean-Baptiste Greuze.
When she was still a teenager, Vigée Le Brun had already begun to attract wealthy clients who
wanted to have their portraits painted, and in 1774 she was accepted into the painters' guild of the
Académie de Saint-Luc, which increased her professional exposure. In 1776 she married Jean-
Baptiste Le Brun, an artist and art dealer, with whom she had one daughter, Jeanne-Julie-Louise.
 EDUCATION :
Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture
FAMOUS PAINTING:
MARIE ANTOINETTE WITH A ROSE
 INVENTION OF NEW TECHNIQUE:
The Rococo style was in decline by the time of Elisabeth
Vigée Le Brun's introduction to the French royal court. In
her able hands, however, she deftly combined the grace and
elegance of this earlier style with the composure and
decorum of the nascent trend of Neoclassicism.
Eugène Delacroix

BIOGRAPHY:
Ferdinand-Eugène-Victor Delacroix was
born on April 26, 1798, in Charenton-Saint-
Maurice, France. His father, Charles, was a
minister of foreign affairs and served as a
governmental prefect in Marseilles and
Bordeaux. His mother, Victoire Oeben, was a
cultured woman who encouraged young
Delacroix’s love of literature and art.
From the 1840s onward, Delacroix spent more time in the
countryside outside Paris. He enjoyed friendships with
other well-known cultural figures such as the composer
Frédéric Chopin and the author George Sand. In addition to
his literary subjects, he produced flower still lifes and
multiple paintings titled “The Lion Hunt.”
 EDUCATION:
He attended the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris but left
school to begin his artistic studies. Sponsored by a helpful
and well-connected uncle, he joined the studio of the
painter Pierre-Narcisse Guérin. In 1816, he enrolled at the
École des Beaux-Arts.
FAMOUS PAINTING:
L I B E RT Y L E A D I N G T H E P E O P L E
 INVENTION OF NEW TECHNIQUE:
His life and work embodied the movement's concern for
emotion, exoticism, and the sublime, and his painting style
- full of lush, agitated brushwork and pulsating with vivid
color - was in direct contrast to the cool and controlled
delineations of his peer and rival, Ingres.
THANK YOU!