AUGUSTE ALLONGÉ

Auguste Allongé was a painter, illustrator, watercolorist, engraver, and draftsman. The artist first trained as a history painter with Léon Cogniet and Louis Ducornet at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. However, it was Allongé’s meeting with Caruelle d’Aligny, and not his early training, that had the most decisive influence on his career. Caruelle d’Aligny introduced Allongé to the practice of painting outdoors (en plein air) and to the Forest of Fontainebleau.

Following this meeting, Allongé worked continually outdoors from life. Although Allongé traveled in the Var, Isère, Oise, and Brittany, his favorite subject remained the Fontainebleau forest. In 1878 Allongé settled in Bourron-Marlotte, a small village eight kilometers south of Fontainebleau, on the edge of its famous forest, and surrounded by the woods the artist so loved to paint and draw.