Narcisse Diaz de la Peña (1809-1876) was born at Bordeaux, the son of
political fugitives from Spain, and, like so many artists of this
group, started his artistic career as a china-painter. He afterwards
gained considerable success with his romantic figure pictures of
mythological and Oriental subjects, like the _Nymphs in a Wood_ (No.
2854), _Venus and Adonis_ (No. 2858), _Venus disarming Cupid_ (No.
2859), and above all the _Fée aux Perles_ (No. 256). As a landscape
painter he delighted in rendering the sparkle of sunlight penetrating
through the dense foliage of forest and brushwood. Diaz must be placed
between Isabey and Millet, who followed his example in his early figure
pieces; but he was also influenced by Rousseau and by Delacroix. Among
his eighteen pictures at the Louvre are several landscapes of superb
quality, notably the _Study of a Birch Tree_ (No. 252), _Sous Bois_
(No. 253), and _Dogs in the Forest_ (No. 257A).
[Illustration:
PLATE L.—JULES DUPRÉ
(1811-1889)