Georges Michel (painter)
Georges Michel (12 January 1763 – 7 or 8 June 1843) was a French landscape painter. An significant forerunner of the Barbizon school, Michel was practically unknown during his lifetime, and worked as copyist and restorer.
Michel was born in Paris. His father was an employee at Les Halles, a big marketplace in the middle section of the city. Michel's first patron, at a very early age, was a particular Monsieur de Chalue. His initial painting teacher was one Leduc, a history painter, and afterwards Michel trained under Nicolas-Antoine Taunay. Although he showed at the Paris Salon, he failed to obtain fame and earned his living by working as copyist and restorer; he specialised in Dutch paintings and was aided in business by Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun's spouse.
Most of Michel's work focusses on rural scenes in the area around Paris. He was influenced by Dutch landscape painters such as Jacob van Ruisdael and Meindert Hobbema. Michel worked in oil and watercolour with equal skill. He was neglected for decades after his death; the first significant exhibition of his art was staged by the Parisian Jean Charpentier hotel, in 1927. Today his paintings are found in museums across the world, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Portland Art Museum, Vanderbilt University Gallery, Strasbourg Musée des Beaux-Arts, Victoria & Albert Museum, and many others.
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