Paul-Adolphe Rajon

French, 1842/43-1888

Biography(b. Dijon, July 1842 or 1842; d Auvers-sur-Oise, Val d'Oise, 8 June 1888). French painter and printmaker. After a rudimentary education he was employed by his brother-in-law, a photographer, to retouch negatives. He then moved to Paris where he supported himself by working as a photographer while training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Isidore-Alexandre-Augustin Pils. In Paris he became friendly with Emily Boilvin and also came to know Philippe Burty, F?lix Bracquemond and Louis-Charles-Auguste Steinheil. Though he studied painting he also learnt to etch under L?on Gaucherel and L?opold Flameng and decided to devote himself to etchings. He made his d?but at the Salon in 1865 with a drawing, but from 1868 he exhibited only etchings. His works, which were mainly reproductions of paintings by contemporary artists or by old Masters such as Gainsborough, Rembrandt and Rubens, appeared in the journals L'Art and Gazette des Beaux-Arts and were also published by Galeries Goupil. He also produced original portait etchings of contemporary writers including Turgenev, Tennyson and Th?ophile Gautier. In 1873 Rajon receieved a commission through Bracquemond to go to England. Thereafter he visited the country for six months a year, making portrait etchings such as Darwin, after Walter William Ouless (1848-1933), and Mrs. Rose , after Frederick Sandys. Both in France and England he enjoyed financial and critical success and, through his acquaintance with the American print dealer Frederick Keppel (1845-1912 in New York, his fame also spread to the USA, which he visited. He was awarded medals for graphic art at the Salons of 1869, 1870, 1873 and at the Exposition universelle of 1878.

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