Gustave Brion

In 1841, in Strasbourg, he entered the studio of Gabriel Guérin, with whom he remained three years; he also received tuition from Andreas Friedrich, the sculptor; but he soon afterwards went to Paris, where his first work appeared at the Salon in 1847; it was entitled Interior of a Farm at Dambach.

With few exceptions, such as the 'Siege of a Town by Romans under Julius Caesar, painted on commission for Napoleon III, and at the cost of much research to the artist, Brion rarely indulged in historical subjects.

He delighted to represent peasants in their natural avocations: here they gather in their potatoes or chat by the village well; there they conduct barges laden with wood down the river; now we see them at a marriage, now hearing mass or attending a burial.

Putting aside several subjects drawn from Normandy and Brittany, from the Basque Provinces, and from a stay in Italy, Brion remained true to his love of Alsace, and it is of the doings of her peasantry that he tells us in his paintings.

[1] The following are his principal works: Brion also created more than 200 illustrations for Victor Hugo's Les Misérables[2] and more for The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (see 'Flemish and French Pictures,' by F. G. Stephens).