Stanislas Lépine (1835–1892) was born on 3 October 1835 in Caen, in Normandy. He began his career painting harbour views in the manner of Johan Barthold Jongkind, and in 1855 he moved to Paris and settled in Montmartre, where he lived for the rest of his life. He made his Salon debut in 1859 with views of Caen, and the same year he met Camille Corot, whose pupil he became in 1860.
Lépine made his name with quiet, small-scale paintings of the Seine, its banks, bridges and barges, the old streets of Montmartre and the ports of Caen and Rouen, often by moonlight. His soft light and calm mood place him between Corot and the Impressionists, and he took part in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. In 1889 he won a first-class medal at the Exposition Universelle, and his works are now in the Musée d’Orsay and many other museums.
Recognition came late. Lépine died in Paris on 28 September 1892, almost totally paralysed and so poor that friends had to collect money to pay for his funeral.