Jean-Antoine Constantin

Born in Marseilles, Constantin was a founder of the Provençal school of landscape painting. In 1777 he was sent to study in Rome; however, bad health forced him to return to France after three years. From 1786 to 1794 he served as Director of the School of Drawing in Aix. Although several of his paintings were submitted to and praised at the Paris Salon, Constantin died in poverty and his oil sketches and some 1,200 drawings, now in the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence, were purchased from his widow as an act of charity.