ジャン＝ルイ・フォラン

Jean-Louis Forain shaped his art around the texture of Parisian life. Born in Reims in 1852, he moved to Paris as a child and trained under Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux Arts. He began as a caricaturist for journals like Le Monde Parisien, work that led him into the orbit of Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas at the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes. Degas became a lifelong influence and friend. Forain showed in four of the Impressionist exhibitions between 1879 and 1886, painting the spectacles of modern Paris—racetracks, theaters, cafés—in watercolor, pastel, and oil.