Achille Lauge was born in Arzens in the Aude region of France, and became a follower of Neo-Impressionism*. The son of well-to-do farmers who moved to Cailhau near Carcassonne, where he spent most of his life, Laugé began studies in Toulouse in 1878 and went to Paris in 1881. At the Ecole des Beaux-Arts* he studied with Alexandre Cabanel and Jean-Paul Laurens. While at the École, Antoine Bourdelle, whom Laugé had known in Toulouse, introduced him to Aristide Maillol, and the three maintained a long and fruitful friendship. In 1888, after seven years in Paris (including a term of military service), Laugé returned to the south and established himself at Carcassonne. Finally, in 1895, he returned to Cailhau where ...