Léon Bonvin

Charles Léon Bonvin (February 28, 1834 – January 30, 1866) was a French watercolor artist known for genre painting, realist still life and delicate and melancholic landscapes.

His older step brother François Bonvin encouraged him to continue and provided him with paints and the advice to carefully study the old masters of the Dutch Golden Age.

[3] At the initiative of his step brother François, because of the dire circumstances in which his family was left, a special art sale of his works was organized to raise money, with artists donating their own works as well; these included Claude Monet, Henri Fantin-Latour, and Johan Barthold Jongkind, among many others "who must have been aware of the quality of Léon's art or knew his brother François Bonvin".

[5] Art historian Gabriel P. Weisberg, in Léon Bonvin's Realism revisited, wrote:[4] "What has been advanced here is that others recognized the significance of both artists at the time, although it was François who generated more discussion since he lived longer, completed oil paintings, and was a regular exhibitor at the Paris Salon.

Léon Bonvin's watercolors capture a sense of the ineffable with a delicacy that belies the destitute circumstances of his daily life.