A young girl with bonnet reading by a window

Though often overshadowed by his Impressionist contemporaries, this French painter carved out a distinctive niche with his luminous, dreamlike scenes. Initially self-taught, he later studied under Félix Bracquemond, but his true inspiration came from the shimmering color palettes of the Rococo revival and the Symbolist movement. Rejecting the gritty realism of his era, he conjured gardens bathed in twilight, opulent fêtes galantes, and mythic allegories—all rendered with a delicate, almost ethereal touch. His figures, often draped in gauzy fabrics, seem to float through compositions where fireflies and candlelight dissolve into brushstrokes of pure radiance. Critics initially dismissed his work as frivolous, but beneath the surface lay a subtle melancholy. Scenes of revelry often hinted at transience, as if the festivities could vanish with the dawn. Later in life, he shifted toward darker, more dramatic subjects—war, poverty, and religious fervor—though even these retained his signature glow. A friend of Degas and Rodin, he resisted categorization, borrowing Impressionism’s spontaneity while clinging to narrative depth. Today, his works are prized for their poetic ambiguity, a bridge between 19th-century romanticism and the emerging modernist sensibility.