Born in 1813 in Paris, Charles Emile Jacque began his training in etching as an apprentice to a map engraver. By 1833 he was painting and debuted at the Paris Salon and contributed regularly until 1870.  He won the Legion d'honneur in 1867.  Jacque was a founding member of the "Men of 1830," also known as l’Ecole francaise du paysage, a group of artists who were influenced by the Revolution of 1830 and sought out new directions in landscape painting.

In the 1840s, Jacque and his friend, Jean-Francois Millet, moved to the village of Barbizon and helped establish the Barbizon School. The artist was known for his realistic, sensitive paintings of shepherds and their flocks, and scenes of farm life. Jacque painted in the area until 1854, when he moved back to the outskirts of Paris where he continued to paint.

Jacque's paintings are held in the collections of the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; Louvre, Paris; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown.