Michel-Léonard Béguine, born in Uxeau in 1855, was a student of Aimé Millet and Auguste Dumon in Paris, where he attended the École des Beaux-Arts. He received an honourable mention for his early work La Douleur in 1878, and continued to receive prices and awards throughout his career. Béguine exhibited at the Expositions Universelles of 1889 and 1900, and further afield, including in Chicago, St-Louis, Brussels and Munich.