Eugène Fromentin (24 October 182027 August 1876) was a French painter and writer, now better remembered for his writings.
Life
He was born in
La Rochelle
La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle''; oc, La Rochèla ) is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department. With ...
. After leaving school he studied for some years under
Louis Cabat, the landscape painter. Fromentin was one of the earliest pictorial interpreters of
Algeria
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, relig ...
, having been able, while quite young, to visit the land and people that suggested the subjects of most of his works, and to store his memory as well as his portfolio with the picturesque and characteristic details of
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
n life. In 1849, he was awarded a medal of the second class.
In 1852, he paid a second visit to Algeria, accompanying an archaeological mission, and then completed that minute study of the scenery of the country and of the habits of its people which enabled him to give to his after-work the realistic accuracy that comes from intimate knowledge.
His books include ' ("The Masters of Past Time", 1876), an influential appreciation of
Early Netherlandish painting
Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. It flourished especiall ...
and the Northern Baroque of the
of Belgium and Holland, ''Dominique'' and ''A Summer in the Sahara''. In ' he deals with the complexity of paintings by
Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditi ...
,
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consi ...
and others, their style and the artists' emotions at the time of creating their masterpieces. He is also one of the first "art critics" to approach the subject of ''The Old Masters'' from a personal point of view – being a painter himself. He also puts the work in a social, political and economic context, as the
Dutch Golden Age painting
Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence.
The new Dutch Republi ...
develops shortly after Holland won its independence. The book developed from articles for journals. Meyer Schapiro has written an essay on Fromentin, "Eugene Fromentin as Critic".
His first great success was produced at the
Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon (P ...
of 1847, by the ''Gorges de la Chiffa''. Among his more important works are:
* '
à
Constantine'' (1849)
* ' (1853)
* ' (1859)
* ' (1859)
* ' (1859)
* ' (1861)
* ' (1863)
* ' (1863)
* ' (now at Luxembourg) (1863)
* ' (1865)
* ' (1867)
* ' (1868)
* ' (1869)
* ''Le Nil'' (1875)
* ' (1875)
Chasse au héron Fromentin Musée Condé.jpg, ''Hunting heron, Algeria'', 1865
Eugène Fromentin 001.jpg, ''Arabs'', 1871
Eugène Fromentin - Marokkaanse ruiters aan de voet van de Chiffrarots.jpg, ''Moroccan Horsemen at the Foot of the Chiffra Cliffs''
Eugène Fromentin 002.jpg, ''Un Souvenir d'Esneh'', 1876
Fromentin, who maintained that "art is the expression of the invisible by means of the visible", was much influenced in style by
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...
. His works are distinguished by striking composition, great dexterity of handling and brilliancy of colour. In them is given with great truth and refinement the unconscious grandeur of barbarian and animal attitudes and gestures. His later works, however, show signs of an exhausted vein and of an exhausted spirit, accompanied or caused by physical enfeeblement.
But it must be observed that Fromentin's paintings show only one side of a genius that was perhaps even more felicitously expressed in literature, though with less profusion. ''Dominique'', first published in the ''
Revue des deux mondes
The ''Revue des deux Mondes'' (, ''Review of the Two Worlds'') is a monthly French-language literary, cultural and current affairs magazine that has been published in Paris since 1829.
According to its website, "it is today the place for debates a ...
'' in 1862, and dedicated to
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...
, is remarkable among the fiction of the century for delicate and imaginative observation and for emotional earnestness.
Fromentin's other literary works are ''Visites artistiques'' (1852); ''Simples Pèlerinages'' (1856); ''Un été dans le Sahara'' (1857); ''Une année dans le Sahel'' (1858). In 1876 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Academy. He died suddenly at La Rochelle on 27 August 1876.
See also
*
List of Orientalist artists
This is an incomplete list of artists who have produced works on Orientalism#Orientalist art, Orientalist subjects, drawn from the Islamic world or other parts of Asia. Many artists listed on this page worked in many genres, and Orientalist subj ...
*
Orientalism
In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...
References
Attribution:
*
External links
''Encyclopædia Britannica''*
*
www.eugenefromentin.orgWorks by Eugène Fromentin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fromentin, Eugene
19th-century French painters
French male painters
1820 births
1876 deaths
French male writers
Orientalist painters
19th-century French male artists