In 1888, Paul-Élie Gernez was born into a humble farm family in Onnaing, near Valen­ciennes. From the age of 13 to 22, he studied at the Valenciennes School of Fine Arts and took classes with Fortuné Layraud (1833- 1913). Gernez greatly admired Northern painting, which he studied at Northern museums. His artistic training deeply influenced his taste for academicism. In 1911, he became a drawing teacher at the Honfleur middle school, a position he held for over a decade. That city in Calvados is where he spent his entire career, splitting his time between his home on the banks of the Seine Estuary and frequent stays in Paris, where shows at the Bernheim-Jeune, Berthe Weill, Armand Drouant and Eugène Druet galleries and the Salon de l...