Studying the Masters
Carolus-Duran trained himself mainly by studying the masters and frequenting the museums where he copied their work assiduously. His spent his apprenticeship from 1845 to 1867 in Lille and Paris, then Italy and Spain, enabling him to broaden his artistic points of reference.
He enrolled initially in the academic schools of his home town where he was the pupil of François Souchon, and paid regular visits to the museum where he was particularly interested in the Spanish and Scandinavian masters who were to have a long-lasting influence on him. He also noticed After Dinner at Ornans (Une Après-dînée à Ornans), a picture by Gustave Courbet which he deeply admired and strove to equal.
Between 1855 and 1860 he lived in Paris together with his friend and mentor Zacharie Astruc, an art critic who was the friend and champion of the Impressionists. He mixed with personalities from the worlds of art - Manet, Monet, Fantin-Latour, Whistler and Stevens ... who were to give birth of Impressionism - and literature - Barbey d'Aurévilly, Baudelaire, Dumas the younger and also Poulet-Malassis. He registered at the Swiss Academy, ignoring the official training offered by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, putting him in the "independent" category.
He then returned to Lille because he was awarded a three-year scholarship by the Département du Nord, and registered at the Imperial School there. In 1862, he submitted his works to the Salon and the same year, obtained the Wicar Prize for The Convalescent. This prize, offered by a patron from Lille, was the equivalent of the Prix de Rome and enabled the winner to spend four years in Italy.
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