Jules Bastien-Lepage

France · 1848–1884

Jules Bastien-Lepage was a French painter closely associated with the beginning of Naturalism, an artistic style that grew out of the Realist movement and paved the way for the development of Impressionism. Émile Zola described Bastien-Lepage's work as "impressionism corrected, sweetened and adapted to the taste of the crowd." His en plein air depictions of peasant life in the countryside were highly influential on many international artists, including George Clausen in England and Tom Roberts in Australia. He also won renown for his history paintings, among the most famous being Joan of Arc, now held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.