Identity:

Henri-Joseph Harpignies was a French painter and printmaker, who came from a prosperous bourgeois family that owned iron forges at Denain. In 1863 he married Margueritte Ventillard.

Life:

Harpignies, who was primarily a painter of town and landscapes, showing an awareness of the works of the Barbizon painters, first exhibited at the Salon in 1853. He won medals for his exhibits in 1866, 1868 and 1869. He also won a silver medal at the Exposition Universelle in 1878, the Grande Médaille d'honneur in 1897 and the Grand Prix at the Exposition Universelle in 1900. He became a member of the Société des Aquarellistes Français in 1881 and the Société des Artistes Français in 1887.

In 1898 he was invited to exhibit at the first exhibition of the ISSPG, a society which had elected Whistler its president on 23 April of that year.

Bibliography:

Bénédite, L., 'Harpignies (1819-1916)', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, n.s. 4, vol. 13, 1917, pp. 207-53; Henri Harpignies, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes, 1970; Gosset, P., Henri Harpignies (1819-1916), Valenciennes, 1982; Preston, Harley, 'Henri-Joseph Harpignies', The Grove Dictionary of Art Online, ed. L. Macy, http://www.groveart.com (accessed 21 March 2002).