Like Gustave Caillebotte, Frédéric Bazille was born into wealth, and used his money to help support his fellow Impressionists.
Like Gustave Caillebotte, Frédéric Bazille was born into wealth, and used his money to help support his fellow Impressionists. He took up painting after seeing the work of Délacroix, but his family expected him to become a doctor, so after moving to Paris in 1862 from his hometown of Montpellier in Southern France, he studied both art and medicine at the same time. Two years later, he failed his medical exam and took up painting full time. Bazille’s work focused on figures, which he often inserted into landscapes. He joined the French Army at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian in 1870, and died in November of that year during the Battle of Beaune-la-Rolande, in which the French were routed by Prussian forces.