Fishing Luggers (Chasse-marée) Making Sail, Off Calais

A native of Calais, Francia is remembered for his links to British watercolor painting. After studying in his home town at the Académie de Dessin, the artist moved to England in 1790 to teach, exhibited at the Royal Academy and attended Dr. Thomas Monro's "academy" of evening drawing sessions from 1795. He there met Thomas Girtin and became, with the latter, a founding member of the sketching society known as The Brothers. In 1808 Francia joined the Associated Artists in Watercolors and would exhibit over one hundred drawings there. After returning to Calais in 1817, Francia continued to teach and exhibit, introducing French artists to the latest English watercolor techniques. He briefly taught the young Richard Parkes Bonington when the latter's family arrived in Calais from Nottingham in 1817 to manufacture lace, and the two artists remained fast friends after the Boningtons moved on to Paris. Indeed, the coastal watercolor subjects that the two artists produced around this time can be hard to tell apart.