His family originally came from Lorraine. Some sources say that he was born there in 1810. His father was a draftsman working on the canal being built from Nantes to Brest and gave him his first drawing lessons.
The artist's ancestral homeland was Lorraine. Certain sources suggest that he was born there in 1810. His father, who worked as a draftsman on the construction of the Nantes-Brest canal, initially instructed him in the art of drawing.