Georges Michel (painter)

His father was an employee at Les Halles, a large marketplace in the central part of Paris.

Thanks to support from the local Fermier Général, he was able to take lessons from a history painter named Leduc, which enabled him to gain admission to the Académie de Saint-Luc.

In 1789, he accompanied the Duke of Guiche to Germany and met Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun, who would provide him with the means to earn a decent, steady income, restoring paintings and making copies of 17th-century Dutch landscapes.

[2] During this time, he obtained the patronage of Jean-Baptiste Roslin, Baron d'Ivry (1775-1839), who was an amateur landscape and history painter.

In keeping with his work as a copyist, his early paintings were influenced by Dutch landscape painters such as Jacob van Ruisdael and Meindert Hobbema.