Bastien-Lepage was born in the village of
Damvillers,
Meuse, and spent his childhood there. Bastien's father grew grapes in a vineyard to support the family. His grandfather also lived in the village; his garden had
espaliered fruit trees of apple, pear, and peach up against the high walls. Bastien took an early liking to drawing, and his parents fostered his creativity by buying prints of paintings for him to copy.
Education ,
Jules Bastien-Lepage, 1887, on display at the
Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts on the
Stanford University campus in
Stanford, California Jules Bastien-Lepage's first teacher was his father, himself an artist. garnered critical acclaim and received a third-class medal. He also showed
Song of Spring, an academically oriented study of rural life, representing a peasant girl sitting on a knoll above a village, surrounded by wood nymphs. His initial success was confirmed in 1875 by the
First Communion, a picture of a little girl minutely worked up in manner that was compared to
Hans Holbein, and a
Portrait of M. Hayern. In 1875, he took second place in the competition for the
Prix de Rome with his
Angels appearing to the Shepherds, exhibited again at the
Exposition Universelle in 1878. His next attempt to win the Prix de Rome in 1876 with
Priam at the Feet of Achilles was again unsuccessful (it is in the
Lille gallery), and the painter determined to return to country life. To the Salon of 1877 he sent a full-length
Portrait of Lady L. and
My Parents; and in 1878 a
Portrait of M. Theuriet and
Haymaking (Les Foins). The last picture, now in the
Musée d'Orsay, was widely praised by critics and the public alike. It secured his status as one of the first painters in the Naturalist school.
Naturalism and acclaim After the success of
Haymaking, Bastien-Lepage was recognized in France as the leader of the emerging Naturalist school. By 1883, a critic could proclaim that "The whole world paints so much today like M. Bastien-Lepage that M. Bastien-Lepage seems to paint like the whole world." This fame brought him prominent commissions. '', 1879 His
Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt (1879), painted in a light key, won him the cross of the
Legion of Honour. In 1879 he was commissioned to do a portrait of the Prince of Wales. In 1880 he exhibited a small depiction of M. Andrieux and an historical painting of
Joan of Arc (now in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art); and in the same year, at the Royal Academy, the small portrait of the Prince of Wales. In 1881 he painted
The Beggar and the
Portrait of Albert Wolf; in 1882
Le Père Jacques; in 1885
Village Love, in which we find some trace of
Gustave Courbet's influence. His last dated work is
The Forge (1884).
Death and legacy Between 1880 and 1883 he traveled in Italy. The artist, long ailing, had tried in vain to re-establish his health in
Algiers. He died in Paris in 1884, when planning a new series of rural subjects. His friend,
Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch, was with him at the end and wrote: An obituary by Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch, appeared in the
Magazine of Art (Cassell) in 1890. ==Relationship with Marie Bashkirtseff==