Louis Dubois artwork • painting • previously for sale Flatboats in a calm

Realistic painter of landscapes, animals, figures and still lifes. He was born in Brussels in 1830 and moved to Paris after his apprenticeship in Brussels. There he was taught by Thomas Couture and befriended Gustave Courbet, whose realism influenced him greatly. Around 1850 this resulted in a place among the progressive French painters. As a painter and art critic, he was a staunch defender of realism, based on objective observation, in response to the idealized Romantic painting. His color is often toned and subdued, but surprising color nuances betray a real painter's temperament. The story goes that his skies aroused Boudin's admiration.