Charles-Édouard Frère (July 10, 1837 – November 2, 1894) was a French painter of rural landscapes and daily life, known especially for paintings of horses and

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

ing.

Upbringing in Écouen

Frère was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He was the son of the genre painter Pierre Édouard Frère (1819-1886), and is sometimes called Frère ''fils'', and was the nephew of the Orientalist painter Théodore Frère (1814-1888). Around 1847, the elder Frère settled the family in the village of Écouen, about eight miles north and a short train ride from Paris. The Frère atelier became the nucleus of a group of students and resident artists that would become known as the .Round, W.M.F. (William Marshall Fitts)
"With Frère and His Confrères"
''The Art Journal'', New Series, Vol. 2, 1876, pp. 341-342. A number of Americans including Henry Bacon spent time in Écouen, and Mary Cassatt made several visits. From infancy, Frère ''fils'' played a role in his father's career. A visitor to Écouen wrote, "In his house Frère has an exquisite collection of pictures… ncludingthe one by his own brush which first brought him fame. It is a picture of his own son when a mere baby, who, perched up in his table-chair, is dividing his time between munching his roll of bread-and-butter, and deranging the articles that are scattered about the table. It is a composition as simple and graceful and sweet as childhood itself."

Career

In 1885, ''Harper's'' published an illustrated article on the Écouen artists' colony, which noted that the elder Frère's "only son is also an artist. He is married, and lives in a pretty, artistic fashion quite near his parents. He was a pupil of his father and of the famous homasCouture."Conant, Cornelia W.
"An Art Student in Ecouen"
''Harpers New Monthly Magazine'', February 1885, . The younger Frère's painting continued the style and subject matter of his father; ''Le Matin'' called him "''le peintre de la vie rustique''." He was awarded medals at the Paris Salon in 1882, 1883, and 1885.''Le Matin''
November 4, 1894, p. 2. Because of similarities in their work and their names, and the overlapping years of their careers, the paintings of father and son are sometimes confused. They may be distinguished by the signatures: "Ed. Frère" or "Edouard Frère" for the father, while the son's work is signed beginning with the letter "C", sometimes as part of a stylized monogram combining the letters "C" and "E".

Personal life; death

On January 20, 1874, he married Giulia Augustina Maria Robecchi (b. 1855), the daughter of the theatrical designer and painter Henry Robecchi (1826-1888) of Paris. They had a son, Gabriel (1874-1922), who became an actor, and two daughters who died very young. In 1879 he was elected to the Écouen city council, taking a seat vacated by his father. In November, 1894, returning to his home in Écouen from painting at a rural site, he

fell A fell (from Old Norse ''fell'', ''fjall'', "mountain"Falk and Torp (2006:161).) is a high and barren landscape feature, such as a mountain or Moorland, moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle of M ...

from a horse-cart running at full speed and died at the age of 57.Charles Edouard Frère
at the sit
Les Peintres d'Écouen 1850-1900
/ref> His remains joined those of his father and father-in-law at the . His death effectively marked the end of the Ecole d'Écouen.

Gallery

File:Charles Edouard Frère--La plâtrière à Saint-Brice--1883--Bordeaux.jpg, ''La plâtrière à Saint-Brice'', 1883, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux File:Charles Edouard Frère (1837-1894) - Shoeing Forge - VIS.1478 - Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust.jpg, ''Shoeing Forge'', 1886, Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust

References

External links