Félix Thomas (1815–1875) was a French architect and painter. He was born in

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

and after graduating from high school Clemenceau, he studied architecture and drafting at the Polytechnique before being admitted to the Beaux-Arts where he studied art under

Louis-Hippolyte Lebas Louis-Hippolyte Lebas (31 March 1782 in Paris – 12 June 1867 in Paris) was a French architect working in a rational and severe Neoclassical style. Life and career He was trained in the atelier of Percier and Fontaine, the favoured architects ...

. His skills as a draftsman led him to work as project architect on several major archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia and Assyria during the early 1850s. Archaeological work provided opportunities for Thomas to demonstrate his skills as an illustrator and interpreter of historic architectural buildings and he co-authored an important early book on the archaeology of Nineveh in Assyria. He turned to full-time painting in his later life and is noted for works within the Orientalist genre.

Career

Gegenüsberstellung der Genien Nimrud-Khorsabad

Initially, Thomas trained as an architect or draftsman at l'Ecole Polytechnique (1834–35). He subsequently studied art at Beaux-Arts where he was a pupil of

who specialised in the history of architecture. In 1845, Thomas won the first

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

for a project in Architecture Cathedral. In 1849 he submitted 14 drawings of Neptune's Temple at Paestum which were very well received. In 1850, he travelled to Greece and on his way stopped at Constantinople and Smyrna. In the early 1850s, Thomas joined several archaeological expeditions in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

and

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...

in his capacity as an architect. The first of these expeditions was led by

Fulgence Fresnel Fulgence Fresnel ( or ; ; (15 April 1795 – 30 November 1855) was a French Orientalist. He was brother to the noted physicist Augustin Fresnel (1788–1827). Fresnel was an Orientalist scholar who led one of the first archaeological teams t ...

and

Julius Oppert Julius (Jules) Oppert (9 July 1825 – 21 August 1905) was a French-German Assyriologist, born in Hamburg of Jewish parents. Career After studying at Heidelberg, Bonn and Berlin, he graduated at Kiel in 1847, and the next year went to France, wh ...

, commencing in 1851. Thomas was expected to describe the monuments and buildings that were discovered as well as to carry out quantity surveys, draw plans, prepare sketches and generally assist with documentation and drawings. He was also required to make casts and stampings of inscriptions, using the new and still secret procedure developed by Lattin de Laval. Due to ill-health, Thomas left Fresnel's Mesopotamian mission prematurely. In spite of that, he still managed to contribute twelve maps to the book of the expedition, ''Expedition Scientifique En Mésopotamie: Exécutée Par Ordre Du Gouvernement De 1851 À 1854'' by Julius Oppert. After recovering from his illness, Thomas rejoined the archaeological team for the Assyrian excavation in 1852. The excavations, originally started by Paul-Emile Botta in 1843, were languishing, and the French government was determined to mount a large-scale operation in Assyria to showcase its dominance in the region.

Victor Place Assyrian sculpture is the sculpture of the ancient Assyrian states, especially the Neo-Assyrian Empire of 911 to 612 BC, which was centered around the city of Assur in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) which at its height, ruled over all of Mesopotam ...

, the new French Consul in Mosul hired Thomas to join the expedition as the project designer. The mission which involved the excavation of the palace of the Assyrian King

Sargon II Sargon II (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "the faithful king" or "the legitimate king") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 722 BC to his death in battle in 705. Probably the son of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727), Sargon is general ...

Khorsabad Dur-Sharrukin ("Fortress of Sargon"; ar, دور شروكين, Syriac: ܕܘܪ ܫܪܘ ܘܟܢ), present day Khorsabad, was the Assyrian capital in the time of Sargon II of Assyria. Khorsabad is a village in northern Iraq, 15 km northeast of Mo ...

(formerly

Nineveh Nineveh (; akk, ; Biblical Hebrew: '; ar, نَيْنَوَىٰ '; syr, ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ, Nīnwē) was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern ban ...

), would become the first systematic excavation of the site. Thomas made substantial contributions to the success of the excavation through his acute observations, the boldness of his reconstructions and the quality of his drawings which contributed to a rich understanding of the architecture of the Palace. Many of the Assyrian antiquities were lost in May 1855 when the expedition's boat sank in the Qurnah Disaster on the

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

, following an attack by local rebels. However, Thomas, who had left earlier, retained his sketches, plans and drawings which subsequently served to illustrate a pioneering text on Assyria and the Palace of King Sargon II entitled ''Ninevah and Assyria'', jointly authored by Victor Place and Felix Thomas in around 1867. In this way, Thomas became a major collaborator and co-author of an important archaeological treatise. On his return to France, Thomas gave up archaeology and devoted himself to painting. He joined the studio of

Charles Gleyre Marc Gabriel Charles Gleyre (2 May 1806 – 5 May 1874), was a Swiss artist who was a resident in France from an early age. He took over the studio of Paul Delaroche in 1843 and taught a number of younger artists who became prominent, including He ...

who became his mentor. His travels in Italy, Greece, and Turkey and the Middle East inspired his artistic vision and he began painting works in the Orientalist genre. He enjoyed only modest success in his second career as a painter. Towards the end of his life, he divided his time between his studio in Nantes and

Pornic Pornic (; ''Pornizh'' in Breton, ''Port-Nitz'' in Gallo) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. In 1973 the commune of Pornic absorbed the neighbouring municipalities of Sainte-Marie-sur-Mer and Clion-sur-Mer. Populat ...

on the Atlantic coast. The Baron de Girardot, in a book dedicated to him, said about him, "Modest to a fault, withdrawn and lonely, he painted for him."M. de Girardot, ''Felix Thomas, grand Prix de Rome Architecte, Peintre, Graveur, Sculpteur,'' Nantes, 1875 Thomas died in Nantes in April 1875.

Works

Thomas is known for the illustrations provided to several important archaeological texts. In his later life, he produced many fine Oriental paintings. One of his works is on display in the Louvre in Paris.

Publications and Illustrations

* Twelve of his illustrations were used in ''Expedition Scientifique En Mésopotamie: Exécutée Par Ordre Du Gouvernement De 1851 À 1854'' by Julius Oppert. * Thomas is co-author (with Victor Place), and illustrator of ''Nineveh and Assyria,'' first published in 1867

Gallery

File:1911 Britannica-Architecture-Khorsabad.png, Entrance to the Palace of Khorsabad, illustration by Felix Thomas File:Grosses Basrelief.jpg, Bass Relief taken from the Palace of Khorsabad File:Van (Arménie).jpg, The City of Van, illustration in ''Ninevah and Assyria'', 1867 File:Victor Place Khorsabad.jpg, Plan of Khorsabad in ''Ninevah and Assyria'', 1867 File:Visite du pacha de Mossoul aux fouilles de Khorsabad.jpg, ''The Pacha visit the Mosul digs'', c. 1863

Select list of paintings and drawings

* ''The Visit of the Pacha of Mosul to the Excavations at Khorsabad'' c. 1863 (now in the Louvre, Paris) * ''Propylées de l'Acropole de'Athènes,'' 1859 (Exhibited at the Salon in 1859) * '' Sentinelle devant les ruines de Ninive'' entinel before the ruins of Nineveh (Private collection) * ''Les Pecheurs,'' n.d. * ''Jument et Poulain au Bord,'' n.d. * ''Jeune Femme en Lisière de Forêt, sous les Arbres,'' n.d. * ''La Sentinelle devant les Ruines de Ninive,'' n.d.

References

External links

* World Thomas Felix http://worldcat.org/identities/viaf-47617178/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Felix 1815 births 1875 deaths 19th-century French illustrators French archaeologists Architectural illustrators French illustrators Methods in archaeology Orientalist painters