I was born on May 21, 1844 into a poor family. I studied to be a lawyer and held government jobs, making art and music in my free time.
At the age of forty I started painting, with nature being my only teacher. Although I had never visited the jungle, I made frequent visits to le Jardin des Plantes, the botanical gardens in Paris, and studied animals through picture-books. My works were laughed at for being childish and unsophisticated, but drew praise from artists Pablo Picasso, Félix Vallotton, Paul Signac, and Robert Delaunay.
Although my paintings did not completely fit into either category, they influenced both fauvism in the 1900s and surrealism in the 1920s.
