Narcisse Diaz de la Peña was a French landscape and figure painter and founding member of the avant-garde Barbizon school. Born in Bordeaux in 1807 to Spanish parents he was orphaned by the age of 10, left penniless and in the care of a priest at Bellevue near Paris. The young Narcisse, who due to an unfortunate accident lost one of his legs to blood poisoning, became famous with his “wooden stump” and apprenticed at the studios at Sevres by the age of 15 where he painted porcelain. The hard work soon took its toll on Diaz and he began to paint his own compositions, mostly of rich, oriental subjects.

Narcisse first exhibited at the Salon between 1831 and 1837. From 1837 to 1844, he was an important and influential member of the Barbizon school. During the following years, he was awarded three Salon gold medals for painting, and, in 1851, was named a Knight of the Legion of Honor. With the Salon of 1848, the Barbizon School of painters became a definite, recognized movement, dominating French landscape painting through the late 1860's.

Art historians have attempted to confine Narcisse to a single school - Barbizon – but Narcisse was a free spirit and followed his own instincts.