Jules Laforgue (1860–1887) was born in Montevideo, Uruguay and raised by a cousin’s family in Tarbes, in south-west France. In 1876 he moved with his family to Paris. He was a poor student but developed an interest in art and became secretary to Charles Ephrussi, one of the first collectors of Impressionist art. From 1881 to 1886 he lived in Berlin, working as French reader for the Empress Augusta. In 1886 he married an Englishwoman, Leah Lee, in France. He died of tuberculosis in the following year.