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Joseph Caraud was born in Cluny, in the Saône-et-Loire region of France. Even before he began his artistic training at the École des Beaux-Arts, he exhibited his first paintings at the Salon of 1843: La Bonne Maman et La Petite Fille and Portrait de M.G.He entered the École des Beaux-Arts ateliers of Alexandre Abel de Pujol, a former student of Jacques-Louis David, and Charles-Louis Lucien Muller, a historical and religious scene painter, in Paris, both of whom influenced his early work at the Salons. From 1843 to 1846, he submitted several portraits to the Salon, perhaps to earn money for a trip to Italy since starting in 1848 he began submitting imagery based on Italian themes. As both of his masters were also portrait painters, he was first introduced to portraiture while he studied with these artists. His first work based on Italian life was his entry for 1848 entitled Jeune Fille Italienne à la Fontaine (Young Italian Girl at the Fountain) and Italien Offrant un Bijou à une Jeune Fille (An Italian Offering Jewelry to a Young Girl). After absorbing the influence of Italian life, he traveled to Algeria, exhibiting at the Salon of 1853 Intérieur d'une Maison Maure à Alger (Interior of a Moorish House in Algiers) and Femme d'Alger Agaçant une Perruche, and Baigneuses Mauresques, thereby maintaining the romantic interest in such themes largely initiated earlier by Eugène Delacroix.Much of his work is in private collections but can also be found in the following museums: Musée Ochier à Cluny - Portrait de Madame Fauconnier ; Musée de Tessé in Le Mans – Jeune Fille Tricotant ; Musée des Ursulines in Macon – La Lettre; and the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, Mississippi - The Letter.
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