EUGÈNE FROMENTIN, French, 1820 - 1876
Windstorm on the Esparto Plains of the Sahara, c. 1864
Oil on canvas
117 by 163cm., 46 by 64in.
Private collection
Exhibited to great acclaim at the Paris Salon of 1864, Windstorm on the Esparto Plains of the Sahara remains one of the most enduring and striking compositions in all Orientalist art. The five riders and their mounts are depicted near Laghouat on the fringe of the Sahara in Algeria, although the precise setting could hardly be inferred from the stark scenery. More on this painting
Eugène Fromentin (24 October 1820 – 27 August 1876) was a French painter and writer, now better remembered for his writings.
Eugene Fromentin
The Ambush
Oil on panel
36 by 27cm., 14 by 10½in.
Private collection
Eugène Fromentin
Arabes attaqués dans une gorge de montagnes/ Arabs attacked in a mountain gorge, c. 1876
Oil on canvas
65 x 43¼ in. (165 x 110 cm.)
Private collection
The theme of the attack, recurrent in the work of Eugène Fromentin, inspired him some of his most important compositions. Whether this results in an ambush, as is the case in the work presented here, or the aggression of a starving feline, it is always represented in a steep setting, making the confrontation inevitable. Besides their large size exceeding 1.50 meters, these compositions have in common a similar pyramidal construction, highlighting the rider and his jumping horse located in the lower right part. The choice of such a dramatic subject, a sober palette, a balanced balance between the violence of the scene and the romantic treatment of the figures, are reminiscent of Fromentin's masters, Horace Vernet. More on this painting
Fromentin, Eugène (Saint-Maurice, near La Rochelle, 1820 - Saint-Maurice, 1876)
Halt of Arab horsemen in the plain
Oil on canvas
Height: 0.735 m; Width: 0.945 m
Louvre Museum
He was born in La Rochelle. After leaving school he studied for some years under Louis Cabat, the landscape painter. Fromentin was one of the earliest pictorial interpreters of Algeria, 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 African life. In 1849, he was awarded a medal of the second class.
Eugene Fromentin
Falcon hunting in Algeria, the quarry, c. 1863
Oil on canvas
H. 162.5; L. 118.0 cm.
Grand Palais, Musée d'Orsay
Among the motifs Fromentin draws from Algeria, the falcon hunt is certainly the one that has the painter's predilection. The scene represented here is that of the quarry: two horsemen with a noble and proud appearance watch their servants tear from the talons of the falcons the hare they have just killed. We find in this work not only the influence of Delacroix in the subject and the use of soft colors and a warm light, but also that of Ingres in the precision of the drawing of the horses and the hunters. More on this painting
Eugene Fromentin
A HAWKING PARTY
Oil on canvas
35 by 27cm., 13¾ by 10½in.
Private collection
Inspired by his trips to Algeria between 1846 and 1853, Eugène Fromentin fell under the spell of the equestrian prowess of the Algerian people. He depicted horsemen with extreme precision and a sense of nobility and virtue befitting this thousand-year old equestrian sport.
In the present example, the falconer, or biaz, has embellished his horse with silver spurs and ornaments stitched with silk, gold and silver, as well as a panther skin adorned sabretache, known as djibira. More on this painting
Eugène Fromentin, French, 1820 - 1876
The Boar Hunt
Oil on canvas
38.5 by 60.5cm., 15 by 23¾in.
Private collection
Eugène Fromentin depicted hunting scenes throughout his career using vivid colours and animated brushwork to capture the energy and liveliness of each event. His work titled La Chasse au sanglier (The boar hunt) painted in 1854 was the first important example of this subject and he would later paint scenes such as Chasse à la gazelle dans le Hodna (1856, Museum of Fine Arts of Nantes) (See below) and La chasse au Heron, Algerie (1865, Musée Condé) (See below). The present work similarly depicts a hunt and the drama and intensity of the scene is heightened by the charging horses and the fired weapon. The horseman responsible for the shot remains intent and focused despite his horse rearing. The boar is just visible in the lower left corner, desperately trying to make its escape. More on this painting
Eugène Fromentin
Chasse à la gazelle dans le Hodna (Algérie), c. 1856
Oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts of Nantes
Eugene Fromentin (1820–1876)
Hunting heron, Algeria, c. 1865
Oil on canvas
99H, 142L.
Condé museum
A year in the Sahel. Orientalist of the second generation, Fromentin paints a melancholy and desolate Orient more than picturesque and colorful. He is particularly attracted by the theme of Arab falconers, which is recurrent in his work (Paris, Musée d'Orsay, Reims, Nantes, Dublin, etc.).
Falcon hunting is reserved for Muslim nobles of the highest extraction, as was the case in Europe in earlier periods. The Chantilly version was exhibited at the Salon of 1865 and at the Universal Exhibition of 1867. Critics, like the Duke of Aumale himself, were astonished at this aquatic landscape and this heavy sky, hardly evocative. hot lands of North Africa. It is nevertheless one of the masterpieces of Fromentin, which the Duke of Aumale acquired during his English exile in 1868 at the sale of the Count of Aquila at the Hôtel Drouot. More on this painting
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 Les Maîtres d'autrefois ("The Masters of Past Time", 1876), an influential appreciation of Early Netherlandish painting and the Northern Baroque of the Old Masters of Belgium and Holland, Dominique and A Summer in the Sahara. In Les Maîtres d'autrefois he deals with the complexity of paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt 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 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 of 1847, by the Gorges de la Chiffa (See above).
Fromentin, who maintained that "art is the expression of the invisible by means of the visible", was much influenced in style by Eugène Delacroix. 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 in 1862, and dedicated to George Sand, 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. More on Eugène Fromentin
Eugene Fromentin (1820–1876)
Campement arabe/ Arab encampment, c. 1850
Oil on canvas
41 x 67.3 cm
musée du quai Branly
Eugene Fromentin
Arab women returning from fetching water
Oil on canvas
Private collection
Eugène Fromentin
Women of the Ouled Nayls, c. 1867
Oil on canvas
110.2 × 72.4 cm (43 3/8 × 28 1/2 in.)
Chicago Institute of Art
The Ouled Naïl are a tribe and a tribal confederation living in the Ouled Naïl Range, Algeria. They are found mainly in Bou Saâda, M'Sila and Djelfa, but there is also a significant number of them in Ghardaïa.
The 1956 edition of the Michelin Guide devotes only a few lines to the Ouled Naïl mountain region; and the Ouled Naïl people are "mere courtesans and Oriental dancers". French colonialist representations of the Ouled Naïl concentrated almost exclusively on women who temporarily left their home and settled in some nearby town. However, none of the highland tribes to which they belonged were specialised in prostitution and only some Ouled Naïl women became dancers. More on Ouled Naïl
Eugène Fromentin, French, 1820-1876
L'Incendie/ The fire, c.1867
Oil on panel
31 x 41 cm
National Gallery of Ireland
Eugène Fromentin
STUDY FOR L'INCENDIE
Oil on canvas
85,5 x 103,5 cm ; 33 5/8 by 40 3/4 in
Private collection
Fromentin, Eugène (Saint-Maurice, near La Rochelle, 1820 - Saint-Maurice, 1876)
Moorish burial
Oil on canvas
Height: 0.325 m; Width: 0.56 m
Louvre Museum
His books include Les Maîtres d'autrefois ("The Masters of Past Time", 1876), an influential appreciation of Early Netherlandish painting and the Northern Baroque of the Old Masters of Belgium and Holland, Dominique and A Summer in the Sahara. In Les Maîtres d'autrefois he deals with the complexity of paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt 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 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".
Eugène Fromentin (1820–1876)
Moroccan riders at the foot of the Chiffrarots
Oil on canvas
Height: 99 cm (38.9 in); Width: 73.5 cm (28.9 in)
Museum of Fine Arts Ghent
His first great success was produced at the Salon of 1847, by the Gorges de la Chiffa (See above).
Fromentin, who maintained that "art is the expression of the invisible by means of the visible", was much influenced in style by Eugène Delacroix. 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.
Eugene Fromentin
Le Pays de la soif/ The Land of Thirst, c. around 1869
Oil on canvas
H. 103.0; L. 143.2 cm.
Grand Palais, Musée d'Orsay
Eugène Fromentin, French, 1820–1876
Arabs Watering Their Horses, c. 1872
Oil on panel
23 1/2 × 28 5/8 in, 59.7 × 72.7 cm
Clark Art Institute
Eugene Fromentin
View of the Nile
Oil on wood
H. 32.5; L. 41.0 cm.
Grand Palais, Musée d'Orsay
While at the beginning of the 19th century, many painters were content to represent a fictional Orient, Eugène Fromentin acquired a more authentic vision thanks to numerous trips to Algeria and Egypt.
For this peaceful View of the Nile , the painter relies on a solid composition. The part devoted to the sky occupies two thirds of the painting, the horizon line separates this zone from that devoted to the waters of the river. To the right, a building placed just at the edge of the shore suddenly cuts off the view. Plunged into the shadows, it symbolizes man's constructions in the face of natural elements.
The rigidity of these lines is counterbalanced by the obliques of the yards of the feluccas which introduce here the picturesque element. More on this painting
Eugene Fromentin
Banks of the Nile
Oil on canvas
Private collection
Fromentin executed a whole series of paintings representing the banks of the Nile; he had been very struck by the color of the Egyptian sky and by that of the waters of the river which he described as "light chocolate". In this series, he has endeavored to convey the sensation of immensity experienced in front of the vast river dominated by a sky which, in our painting, occupies more than two-thirds of the composition. In addition, Fromentin has sought to suggest the warm humidity which subtly permeates the atmosphere and the rather soft light of his Bords du Nil, and he uses a free and rapid technique for this purpose. The figures and animals are small, as in most of his Views of the Nile. More on this painting
Eugene Fromentin
Souvenir of Ezneh, Upper Egypt, c. 1876
Also known under the title Egyptian Women on the Bank of the Nile
Oil on canvas
H. 120.0; L. 105.0 cm.
Musée d'Orsay, Grand Palais
A group of women are pictured here at the water's edge as the sun sets. Only the fact that they are black women, the presence of the minaret and the mosque that we can guess behind the trees tell us that we are in Africa. The scene is divided into two large areas which are opposed: the river bathed in a warm and golden light on the one hand, and on the other hand the foliage under which the women are found, and where everything is only shades of browns and greens. More on this painting
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