Charles-Francois Daubigny
(b Paris, 15 Feb 1817; d Paris, 19 Feb 1878).
Painter and printmaker. He studied under his father Edmond-François
Daubigny and in 1831–2 also trained with Jacques-Raymond Brascassat. At
an early age he copied works by Ruisdael and Poussin in the Louvre,
while also pursuing an apprenticeship as an engraver. At this time he
drew and painted mainly at Saint-Cloud and Clamart, near Paris, and in
the Forest of Fontainebleau (1834–5). In 1835 he visited several Italian
cities and towns, including Rome, Frascati, Tivoli, Florence, Pisa and
Genoa. He returned to Paris in 1836 and worked for François-Marius
Granet in the painting restoration department of the Louvre. In 1840 he
spent several months drawing from life in Paul Delaroche’s studio,
although his early works were much more heavily influenced by
17th-century Dutch painters, whom he copied in the Louvre, than by
Delaroche’s work.