Auguste ANASTASI

Auguste Anastasi (1820-1889) was born, raised, and spent most of his life in Paris.  Anastasi was mostly a landscape painter, who belonged to the School of Barbizon.  He had been taught by both the historical painter Paul Delaroche, and by none other than Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot.  He received his formal artistic education from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.  While he lived until 1889, his output diminished as early as 1860, when blindness started to affect him, and he completely ceased being active as an artist as of 1870.
As a printmaker Ansatasi was exclusively a lithographer and her is known both for his own original compositions and for reproducing compositions by his contemporaries, such as Rosa Bonheur, Eugène Isabey, his mentor Jean-Baptiste Corot, or Théodore Rousseau, to name the most notable.  The diversity of subjects in his lithographs is thus much greater than in his painting.  And while his skill as a lithographic draftsman should not be understated, his output is noteworthy mostly for some high-drama compositions with great contrast.  In some of these he stands out as one of the best lithographers of his time.