A master of creating delicate and luminous landscapes in a restrained palette, he was a leading figure of the French landscape school by the mid-19th century. At the age of 26 he was given a small allowance to pursue art training. He studied under the classical landscapists Achille-Etna Michallon and Jean-Victor Bertin and then spent three years in Italy. His notion of landscape remained fixed in academic tradition; yet he paved the way for the Impressionist landscape painters, on whom he exerted a great influence. He made small oil sketches and drawings from nature, which he would then work up in his studio.