Maison de Diaz de la Peña

Born in Bordeaux to Spanish parents and orphaned at ten, Narcisse Díaz de la Peña lost a leg as a child after a viper bite and began as a porcelain painter at Sèvres. From the mid-1830s he came every summer to paint in the forest of Fontainebleau: at the Salon of 1837 he showed a view of the gorges d'Apremont. A regular at the Auberge Ganne and a friend of Théodore Rousseau, he became one of the most sought-after painters of his day, and collectors competed for his canvases. Generous by nature, he stood by Rousseau and Millet in their difficult years.

His house and studio on the Grande Rue kept his name after him. In 1871 the animal painter Céramano moved into the studio; twenty years later the painter Paul Comble bought the house, painted it, then rebuilt the studio. Díaz himself came back only rarely in his last years, and died in Menton in 1876.

Renoir told of meeting him in the forest of Fontainebleau in the early 1860s: the old painter with the wooden leg drove off with his cane those who were mocking the young man, gave him advice and opened a line of credit for him at his colour merchant. Works by Díaz are held in the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay, among others.