Harpignies was born in Valenciennes. He was in Italy in 1850-52 and 1863-65. He exhibited at the Salon from 1853. He was a landscape painter, and was influenced by Corot.
Henri-Joseph Harpignies
1819 - 1916
Paintings by Henri-Joseph Harpignies
Henri-Joseph Harpignies saw himself as a painter of real life. From the outset, he dissociated himself from his older contemporaries – from the smooth, meticulous style of neo-classical artists and from the flamboyance of the Romantics. Yet in this tiny picture, made very early in his career, the...
Not on display
The sombre colours and dying glow of the evening light in this rustic landscape evoke autumn, the inevitable passage of time and a certain melancholy. Leaves on the cluster of poplar trees are crisp and beginning to turn brown. On the scrubby grass beneath the trees, a few dabs of paint suggest l...
Not on display
Two tall, slender olive trees stand on the rough ground at the top of a hill overlooking the sea. Their trunks are crooked and gnarled, the brittle bark catching the sun and glinting here and there.This is Menton on the French Côte d‘Azure. It was a fashionable resort in Harpignies’ time, but he...
Not on display
A man stands on the winding path beneath the dark, forbidding cliffs. He gazes out across the river, his white cap, coat and backpack lifting the bleakness of the cliffs behind him. High above him, the sun catches a strange construction on the cliff top and crosses the gap between the two halves...
Not on display
Henri-Joseph Harpignies' garden was clearly a great joy to him: it became one of his favourite subjects and he painted it many times, making sketches and watercolours as well as oil paintings. In this picture, painted a few years after he retired to the country, he has depicted the garden in grea...
Not on display