I suppose his work could be categorised by three artistic terms: Naturalism, Realism and Ruralism, as he will probably be remembered for his paintings depicting peasant farmers and their families at work in the fields. However, as you will find out, there were more strings to his bow.
The village was close to Chateau Thierry, a farming region close to the Champagne region around Rheims. As a young boy he enjoyed drawing and liked to copy art works he saw in popular illustrated magazines. He liked to look at books which had illustrations by earlier French painters, such as the Realists. Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran was born in Paris. Later he became a professor at the academy.
He influenced many great artists such as Rodin, Henri Fantin-Latour and Whistler to mention but a few. Lecoq Boisbaudran developed in his pupils a method of training memory. His students were required to copy progressively complex shapes starting with straight lines and rectangles and objects before drawing them from memory.
The outcomes were then subjected to rigorous comparison with the model and mistakes corrected, over and over again, if necessary. Eventually, the students graduated to making careful analyses of masterpieces in the Louvre and then drawing them from memory when back in the studio.
Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudrand theories had a profound effect on Lhermitte. From what Lhermitte learnt from his tutor, he was able to view a scene, notably a landscape scene, and then more fully execute the painting back in his studio.
