Jules Dupré was born in Nantes on April 5, 1811. His father was a porcelain manufacturer in Parmain (a small village on the shores of the Oise) and by 1822 Jules was working in the factory decorating plates. In his spare time he painted simple landscape studies from nature and finally traveled to Paris to study with Jean-Michel Diebolt, the landscape and animal painter. In the late 1820’s his father was appointed director of the Coussac porcelain factory near Limoges and Jules took this opportunity to sketch and paint landscapes in this region.

In 1831, at the age of 20, he made his debut at the Paris Salon showing a number of landscapes. That same year he was invited to London where he spent time studying the works of the English landscape artists and painting in the English countryside. It is believed that Dupré was responsible for bringing the English landscape style to France and blending it with the style and images of the Barbizon school.

In 1833 he exhibited a number of works at the Paris Salon and received a second-class medal. However, it was the works he exhibited at the Salon of 1835 that solidified his reputation in the hearts and minds of many of the artists of the Romantic school.

Dupré spent much of his life in isolation but continued to exhibit sporadically at the Salon through 1883. He died on October 6, 1889.