Early Life, Family and Training Louis Braquaval enters the world in 1854 in Esquermes, France. He is born into the security of a wealthy industrialist family, a background that provides a stark contrast to the manual labor of the era. His early years lack the formal discipline of the studio; as a child, he receives no instruction in drawing. The lines and forms that would later define his landscapes are entirely absent from his youth. The trajectory of his life shifts from the commerce of the auction house to the quietude of the studio. Louis Braquaval initially establishes himself as an au…