Fromentin, EUGÈNE

Fromentin, EUGÈNE, painter and author, was born at La Rochelle in 1820. He studied under Cabat the landscape-painter; and from 1842 to 1846 travelled in the East, which is the scene of almost all his works. His pictures are admirably true in their local colouring, and reproduce with great spirit the free nomad life of the Arab and his steed. Among his more important works are 'Arabs attacked by a Lioness' (1868), 'Halt of the Muleteers' (1869), 'A Souvenir of Esneh' (1876), and 'The Nile' (1876). His 'Couriers,' 'Country of the Ouled-Nayls,' 'Springtime' (1861), and his 'Falconry in Algiers: the Quarry' (1863) are in the Louvre. But he was no less prolific with his pen than with his brush. He published an account of his travels in Le Pays, under the titles of 'Visites Artistiques' and 'Simples Pèlerinages' (1852-56); and 'Une Année dans le Sahel' (1858) recorded the results of his investigations for the Committee of Historic Monuments. He also produced a successful romance, Dominique (1863). English translations of his Les Maîtres d'Autrefois (1876), an admirable criticism upon the Dutch and Flemish painters, as well as of his Life by Louis Gonse (1881), have been published in America. He became a 'chevalier' of the Legion of Honour in 1859 and an 'officier' in 1869; and died at St Maurice, near La Rochelle, 27th August 1876. See Gonse, Eugène Fromentin (Paris, 1881).