Augustin Feyen-Perrin

His father was a tax collector. He had his first art lessons with his older brother, Jacques-Eugène, then attended a drawing school in Nancy. After some private lessons with Michel Martin Drolling, he qualified to enroll at the École des Beaux-arts in 1848, where he studied with Léon Cogniet and Adolphe Yvon. Specializing in portraits and genre scenes, he had his first exhibition at the Salon of 1853. He continued to exhibit there for most of his life, winning medals in 1865, 1867 and 1874. Once, he gave up the chance to compete for the Prix de Rome to accept a commission painting theater curtains for the Opéra-Comique. Together with his brother and his friend, Jules Breton, he spent his summers in Cancale; painting scenes from the everyday lives of the Breton peasantry. Many of his works were acquired by public institutions. He was a close friend of Gustave Courbet and worked with him at two organizations Courbet presided over during the Franco-Prussian War: the Museum Commission and the Federation of Artists, created in 1871 during the Paris Commune. Despite this potentially compromising activity, he maintained his respectability with the Republican establishment and was decorated with the Légion d'Honneur in 1878. His tomb in Montmartre Cemetery was adorned with a monument by the sculptor, Ernest Guilbert, in 1892.