Born:1843 – Dijon, France
Died:1888 – Auvers-sur-Ouise, France
Title of Work:
| F.G. Stephens provides a biography of the artist in his Twelve Etchings Contributed to the Portfolio by Paul Adolphe Rajon published in 1889. He studied under Auguste Hussenot and had a close friendship with the art critic and writer Philippe Burty. He studied under Isidore Pils at the École des Beaux-Arts and also under Léon Gaucherel and Léopold Flameng. Aged 14 he was employed by his brother-in-law, a photographer in Metz, to ‘touch up’ portraits and other plates whilst during the evenings he attended the École Municipale of Metz under Auguste Migrette. He moved to Paris aged 21 ‘with forty francs in his pocket, his paintbox under his arm, and a promise of eight days work’ in a photographers studio. He came to London in 1872 at the invitation of Brunet-Debaines, Charles Waltner and P.G. Hamerton. He published widely in Hamerton’s The Portfolio from 1876 until his death in 1888. Rajon would later sketch a portrait of James Abbott McNeill Whistler in 1883.Twelve Etchings Contributed to the Portfolio by Paul Adolphe Rajon included a dedication to Lawrence Alma-Tadema with the inscription; ‘To L. Alma Tadema, Because of your affection for him please accept this Memoir – all I have to offer – of the friend we have lost. Yours Truly Frederic [sic] G. Stephens November 1, 1888’. In it Stephens described his friend Rajon’s appearance and character; noting his ‘delicate and variable’ health and his ‘petite, lithe, and slender figure’. |