French painter and etcher, born in Paris, he first worked as a circus rider. He gained artistic training studying under Joseph Guichard and made an early reputation as an etcher and lithographer. He first exhibited at the Salon and in 1852 and in1863 his engravings of Erasmus were included in the Salon des Refuses.
He played a leading role in the revival of the etcher's art in France, producing over eight hundred plates. After having been attached to the Sèvres porcelain factory in 1870, he accepted a post as art manager of the Paris atelier of the firm of Haviland of Limoges. Bracquemond was a prominent figure in artistic and literary circles in the second half of the 19th century. He was close to writers such as Edmond de Goncourt and critic Gustave Geffroy, and numbered among his friends Millet and Corot, Henri Fantin-Latour, Degas and the Impressionist circle, and Auguste Rodin.
