Louis-Gabriel-Eugène Isabey

With Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd., London, Old Master & 19th Century Drawings, 2003-2004, no. 44,

where acquired by Diane A. Nixon

Louis-Gabriel-Eugène Isabey had wanted to be a sailor and - it is said - only became a painter to please his father, the celebrated portrait miniaturist Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767-1855). He first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1824, where he was awarded a first-class medal and where he met Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) and Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828), two artists that he would come to greatly admire and with whom he travelled to England during the summer of 1825.

Shortly after his return to France, Isabey moved to the Normandy coast, where he spent much time painting directly from nature, en plein air.¹ By circa 1830 he had moved back to Paris where he gained a strong reputation within the court of Louis-Philippe. Although he did produce large-scale oil paintings, he remained inspired by the medium of watercolor and in 1879 became one of the founding members of the Société des Aquarellistes Français (Society of French Painters in Watercolor). He continued to visit Normandy throughout his life.

^1.Isabey probably lived near Honfleur in Normandy.