Biographies

Félix François Georges Philibert Ziem (1821 – 1911) He was born in Beaune in the heart of the Burgundy wine area. His mother was a native of Burgundy who had married a Croatian immigrant. Originally, Ziem planned to be an architect and studied at the School of Architecture in Dijon, and for a time worked as an architect. Painting developed from a hobby to a career following an 1841 visit to Italy where he fell in love with the city of Venice. Ziem’s works were first exhibited in 1849 at the Paris Salon, and he remained a regular exhibitor there for many years. Considered a member of the Barbizon school of landscape painters, he also traveled extensively throughout Europe and in 1860 settled in Paris in Montmartre.