François-Thomas-Louis Francia was born in Calais but spent much of his early career in England, where he studied drawing and watercolour painting with an eye specifically toward landscape.He joined the Society of Painters in Water-Colours while in London, and an unsuccessful bid for a membership in the Royal Academy likely contributed to his return to his native Calais in 1817. It was there that he gave instruction to Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828), whose style greatly imitates that of Francia. Francia may thus be credited with disseminating the most contemporary ideas relative to the British love of landscape to his fellow 19th-century practitioners in France.