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Jean Louis Forain is an interesting figure. He was a member of the group of Impressionist painters, but seems to be the least known amongst them. He studied briefly with Jean Leon Gerome and Jean Baptiste Carpeaux. He was an artist of diverse talents. He produced watercolours, etchings, lithographs and paintings. He began his career as a caricaturist and worked for several Paris journals. His style was a mix of Manet’s realism and Daumier’s sarcasm.

He was a talented etcher, and his etchings were often compared to those of Rembrandt. He depicted domestic scenes, cafe life, theatrical performers and dancers. He joined other artists of the day such as Monet, Renoir, Manet and Degas in the Cafe Guerbois in the region of Bagnitolles in Paris. He loved the Bohemian lifestyle of Paris at the time. He had an extraordinarily close friendship with Degas, whom he admired both as a person and as an artist. The two artists worked together on many occasions, painting and drawing dancers, nudes, and scenes from Parisian theatres and cafes. Their style was incredibly similar, which Degas acknowledged when he was quoted as saying of Forain, ‘he paints with his hands in my pockets.’

A particularly famous etching of his is, ‘Les Follies Bergeres’ which was commissioned for the book, ‘Croquis Parisiens’ and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco has a good collection of his works. At the age of twenty seven he sent twenty six drawings to the Impressionist exhibition of 1879. Edgar Degas stubbornly defended his work and his qualities as an artist, however Monet and Renoir were not of the same opinion. Things became rather acrimonious, and in protest, both Monet and Renoir temporarily abandoned the Impressionist exhibition and entered the official Salon exhibition. However, Jean Louis Forain continually encouraged and admired by Degas went onto exhibit in all of the Impressionist exhibitions until 1886.

In 1891, he married the artist Jeanne Bosc, they had a son together and he left his Bohemian days behind him. After his marriage he concentrated on producing illustrations for newspapers and journals. He liked producing court scenes and had a particular interest in the Dreyfus Affair. He was influenced by Daumier in his court drawings and was passionate about the artistry of courtroom dramas. Some of his works such as ‘A Plea for Mercy,’ are particularly well known.

In the early 1900s, he became particularly religious and became a devout practising Catholic, from this date onwards art experts have noticed that his palette took on a more darker and sombre note. His paintings became a stark contrast to his paintings of ‘Gay Paris,’ where he depicted cafe life, and the dance halls. At the age of sixty two, during the First World War, he left Paris to fight in the trenches and he became part of the Camouflage corps. He was commissioned by Le Figaro to provide illustrations of the war.

Two other less well known Impressionists of the time were Stanislas Lepine, and Alphonse Maureau. Lepine began his studies under Corot, but then he turned to Impressionism when he exhibited in the first exhibition of Impressionists. His paintings include works such as, ‘A Gateway behind Trees,’ which hangs in the National Gallery in London.

Alphonse Maureau was known for his studies of nature on a small scale which he painted in the Impressionist style. Edouard Manet painted a well known portrait of him entitled, ‘Man with Round Hat.’