Born into a bourgeois family of Belgian descent who established a sugar beet factory, Henri Joseph Harpignies became seriously interested in painting during an extended trip through France in 1838. However, he first worked as a sales agent until 1848, when he entered the studio of landscape painter Jean-Alexis Achard (1807-1884). Harpignies traveled to Crémieu and Brussels with Achard but decided to return home upon the outbreak of the revolution of 1848. After the revolution, he traveled through southern Germany and to Italy, where the natural surroundings made a strong impact on his work and where he first became interested in watercolor. He was accepted into the Salon of 1853 and exhibited there regularly until 1912. Harpignies was influenced by Corot (q.v.) and the other Barbizon painters and worked in their manner. He traveled throughout France, visiting the forest of Fontainebleau, the Pyrenees, Nevers, and other areas, making landscape studies. He returned to Italy from 1863 through 1865, after his marriage to Marguerite Ventillard. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) he fought with the National Guard at Hérisson, where he would return each summer throughout the 1870s. Harpignies took on his own private pupils, whom he taught his watercolor technique, and his contract with the dealers Arnold & Tripp in 1883 secured his financial independence. During the final decades of his life, he traveled often to La Trémellerie at Saint-Privé and painted along the coast of Nice and Menton.