NARCISSE VIRGILIO

DIAZ (18(38-1876)  , French painter, was born in Bordeaux of Spanish parents, on the 25th of August 1808 . At first a figure-painter who indulged in strong colour, in his later life Diaz became a painter of the forest and a " tone artist " of the first order . He spent much time at Barbizon; and although he is the least exalted of the half-dozen great artists who are usually grouped round that name, he sometimes produced works of the highest quality . At the age of ten Diaz became an orphan, and misfortune dogged his earlier years . His foot was bitten by reptile in Meudon wood, near Sevres, where he had been taken to live with some friends of his mother . The bite was badly dressed, and ultimately it cost him his leg . Afterwards his wooden stump became famous . At fifteen he entered the studios at Sevres, where the decoration of porcelain occupied him; but tiring of the restraint of fixed hours, he took to painting Eastern figures dressed in richly coloured garments . Turks and Oriental scenes attracted him, and many brilliant gems remain of this period . About 1831 Diaz encountered Theodore Rousseau, for whom he entertained a great veneration, although Rousseau was four years his junior; but it was not until ten years later that the remark-able incident took place of Rousseau teaching Diaz to paint trees . At Fontainebleau Diaz found Rousseau painting his wonderful forest pictures, and determined to paint in the same way if possible . Rousseau, then in poor health, worried at home, and embittered against the world, was difficult to approach .

Diaz followed him surreptitiously to the forest,—wooden leg not hindering,—and he dodged round after the painter, trying to observe his method of

work . After a time Diaz found a way to become friendly with Rousseau, and revealed his anxiety to understand his painting . Rousseau was touched with the passionate words of admiration, and finally taught Diaz all he knew . Diaz exhibited many pictures at the Paris Salon, and was decorated in 1851 . During the Franco-German War he went to Brussels . After 1871 he became fashionable, his. works gradually rose in the estimation of collectors, and he worked constantly and successfully . In 1876 he caught cold at his son's grave, and on the 18th of November of that year he died at Mentone, whither he had gone to recruit his health . Diaz's finest pictures are his forest scenes and storms, and it is on these, and not on his pretty figures, that his fame is likely to rest . There are several fairly good examples of the master in the Louvre, and three small figure pictures in the Wallace collection, Hertford House . Perhaps the most notable of Diaz's works are " La Fee aux Perks " (1857), in the Louvre; " Sunset in the Forest " (1868);." The Storm." and " The Forest of Fontainebleau " (187o) at Leeds . Diaz had no well-known pupils, but Leon Richet followed markedly his methods of tree-painting, and J . F .

Millet at one period painted small figures in avowed imitation of Diaz's then popular subjects . See A . Hustin, Les Artistes celebres: Diaz (Paris) ; D . Croat Thomson, The Barbizon School of Painters (London, 1890) ; J . W . Mollett, Diaz (London, 1890) ; J . Claretie, Peintres et sculpteurs contemporains: Diaz (Paris, 1882) ; Albert Wolff, La Capitale de Part: Narcisse Diaz (Paris, 1886); Ph . Burty, Maitres et petitmaitres: N . Diaz (Paris, 1877) . (D . C .