Eugène Fromentin

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French painter (1820–1876)

title: "Eugène Fromentin" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["19th-century-french-painters", "french-male-painters", "1820-births", "1876-deaths", "french-male-writers", "french-orientalist-painters", "19th-century-french-male-artists", "people-from-la-rochelle"] description: "French painter (1820–1876)" topic_path: "geography/france" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugène_Fromentin" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary French painter (1820–1876) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox artist"]

Field	Value
name	Eugène Fromentin
image	Eugène Fromentin.jpg
birth_date
birth_place	La Rochelle, France
death_date
death_place	La Rochelle, France
nationality	French
field	Painter, Novelist, Travel literature, Art critic
training	Louis Cabat
movement	Orientalist
signature	File:Fromentin-signature-letter.jpg
::

| name = Eugène Fromentin | image = Eugène Fromentin.jpg | imagesize = | Alias = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = La Rochelle, France | death_date = | death_place = La Rochelle, France | nationality = French | field = Painter, Novelist, Travel literature, Art critic | training = Louis Cabat | movement = Orientalist | works = |signature = File:Fromentin-signature-letter.jpg}} Eugène Fromentin (; 24 October 182027 August 1876) was a French painter and writer.

Life and career

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. His first great success was produced at the Paris Salon of 1847, by the Gorges de la Chiffa. 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 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. Bernhard Berenson wrote of the book, "I carry Fromentin with me, and read him each evening about the pictures I have seen that he criticizes. He is the only writer on pictures worth his salt, but I do not always agree with him."

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 include 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.

Gallery

Eugene Fromentin - Arabian Encampment - 1949.236 - Yale University Art Gallery.jpg|Arabian Encampment, 1848 Eugène Fromentin - North African Landscape - 1970.372 - Museum of Fine Arts.jpg|North African Landscape, 1847 ~ 1848 Boerenerf met vee Rijksmuseum SK-A-3304.jpeg |Boerenerf met vee [Farmyard with livestock], 1849 Arabs Watering their Horses by Eugène Fromentin, San Diego Museum of Art.JPG|Arabs Watering Their Horses, ca. 1850 Eugène Fromentin - Arab Woman - 1964.30 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|Arab woman, 1852 Françoise Foliot - Eugène Fromentin - Enterrement maure.jpg |Enterrement maure [Moorish burial], 1853 Gazette des beaux-arts (1859) (14781600982).jpg |La rue Bab-el-Gharbi, à El-Aghouat, 1859 Kabyle Shepherd, by Eugène Fromentin.JPG|Kabyle Shepherd, 1861 E. Fromentin.Cavaliers arabes.Musée La Rochelle.jpg|Cavaliers arabes ou la rencontre [Arab Horsemen or the Encounter], 1862 Eugène fromentin, caccia al falcone in algeria, la corsa, 1863 (cropped).JPG |Chasse au faucon en Algérie : la curée [Falcon Hunting in Algeria: The Quarry], 1863 Eugène Fromentin - Windstorm on the Esparto Plains of the Sahara (1864) (Sotheby's) 095l1905-b9dd9.jpg|Windstorm on the Esparto Plains of the Sahara, 1864 Eugène Fromentin - Coup de vent sur les plaines d'Alfa.jpg|Coup de vent sur les plaines d'alfa [Gust of Wind on the Plains of Alfa], 1864 Chasse au héron Fromentin Musée Condé.jpg|Hunting Heron, Algeria, 1865 Eugène Fromentin - An Encampment in the Atlas Mountains - Walters 37195.jpg|An Encampment in the Atlas Mountains, 1865 Eugène Fromentin - Standard Bearer - 17.3254 - Museum of Fine Arts.jpg |Standard Bearer, 1860 ~ 1865 Arabs on the Way to the Pastures of the Tell by Eugène Fromentin, High Museum of Art.jpg |Arabs on the Way to the Pastures of the Tell, 1866 Before the Race-Fantasia or The Halt in the Desert by Eugene Fromentin.jpg|Before the Race – Fantasia or The Halt in the Desert, 1867 L'Incendie .PNG|L'Incendie [The Fire], 1867 Eugène Fromentin - Centaures - PPP2517 - Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris.jpg|Centaures, 1868 Eugène Fromentin - Halte de cavaliers arabes dans la forêt.jpg|Halte de cavaliers arabes dans la forêt [Arab Horsemen Resting in the Forest], 1868 Crossing the Ford, Algeria .PNG|Crossing the Ford, Algeria, 1869 Eugène Fromentin - Une fantasia. Algérie - Orsay RF 1838.jpg|Une Fantasia [A Fantasy] – Algeria, 1869 345Eugene Fromentin Les Tombeaux Des Califes Au Caire02.jpg |Les tombeaux des Califes au Caire [The Tombs of the Caliphs in Cairo], ca. 1870 Ejem Fromanten - Nil çayı.jpg|Nil çayı (Turkish) [Nile Tea], 1870 Eugène Fromentin 001.jpg|Arabs, 1871 Eugène Fromentin - On the Nile, Near Philae - 1900.580 - Art Institute of Chicago.jpg|On the Nile, Near Philae, 1871 Eugène Fromentin - Orientals - 58.32 - Minneapolis Institute of Arts.jpg |Orientals [Egyptian Females], 1872 Fromentin - Campement dans le Sahara.jpg|Campement dans le Sahara [Campsite in the Sahara], 1872 Eugène Fromentin (1820-1876) - The Banks of the Nile - NG3511 - National Gallery.jpg|The Banks of the Nile, 1874 Fromentin--Ravine--1874--Nelson-Atkins.png|Un ravin : souvenir d'Algérie [A Ravine: Souvenir of Algeria], 1875 Cavalier peint en Algérie par Eugène Fromentin.jpg|Cavalier peint en Algérie [Painted Rider in Algeria], 1875 Eugene Fromentin- La caravane (scène de la vie nomade des Larbâa Laghouat).jpg|La caravane (scène de la vie nomade des Larbaâ Laghouat) [The Caravan (Scene From the Nomadic Life of the Larbaâ Laghouat)], 1875 Eugène Fromentin - At the Well - Walters 37100.jpg|At the Well, 1875 Eugène Fromentin 002.jpg|Un Souvenir d'Esneh [A memory of Esneh], 1876 Eugène Fromentin - Le Simoun 04.jpg|Le Simoun [The Simoun], 1876 Eugene Fromentin Horses Watering in a River.jpg|Horses Watering in a River, undated Bedouins watering their horses 2001 NYE 08515 0018 000(024840).jpg|Bedouins Watering Their Horses, undated Eugène Fromentin - Marokkaanse ruiters aan de voet van de Chiffrarots.jpg|Moroccan Horsemen at the Foot of the Chiffra Cliffs, undated Eugène Fromentin (1820-1876) - Head of an Old Woman - GR.101 - The New Art Gallery Walsall.jpg|Head of an Old Woman, undated The Boar Hunt.jpg|The Boar Hunt, undated Départ pour la chasse - Fromentin 001.jpg|Départ pour la chasse [Departure for the hunt], undated Eugene Fromentin On The Nile.jpg|On the Nile, undated Arab Skirmish MET 47227.jpg|Arab Skirmish, undated Eugène Fromentin Le repos des chameaux.jpg|Le repos des chameaux [The Camels Rest], undated

Bibliography

Notes

Inline references

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Retrieved July 27, 2004. ; ; . See Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. (1910–1911).
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General references: works by Eugène Fromentin in English translation

"A Critic's Program" and "A Letter to a Young Artist" in Realism and Tradition in Art, 1848-1900: Sources and Documents, edited by Linda Nochlin, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1966, pp. 19–25; reprinted from the Mary Caroline Robbins translation of Gonse (1888).
Between Sea and Sahara: An Algerian Journal, translation by Blake Robinson of Une Anée dans le Sahel (1859), Ohio University Press, 1999; reissued in 2004 by Tauris Parke Paperbacks with the subtitle An Orientalist Adventure.
.
. Reprint by Soho Book Company (1986).
"The Isle of Ré: An Unpublished Fragment" in Eugène Fromentin, Painter and Writer by Louis Gonse, translated by Mary Caroline Robbins, Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1888, pp. 251–271; various other quotations, letters, and excerpts by Fromentin, translated by Robbins, appear throughout the book.
The Masters of Past Time, or Criticism on the Old Flemish & Dutch Painters, uncredited translation of Les Maîtres d'autrefois (1876), New York: E.P. Dutton, 1913.
The Old Masters of Belgium and Holland, translation by Mrs. Mary C. Robbins of Les Maîtres d'autrefois (1876), Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1882.

General references: writings about Fromentin in English

Bales, Richard. Persuasion in the French Personal Novel: Studies of Chateaubriand, Constant, Balzac, Nerval, and Fromentin, Birmingham, AL: Summa Publications, 1997.
Beaume, Georges. Fromentin, translated from the French by Frederic Taber Cooper, New York: Stokes, 1913.
Christin, Anne-Marie, and Berrong, Richard M. "Space and Convention in Eugène Fromentin: The Algerian Experience", New Literary History, vol. 15, no. 3, Spring, 1984, pp. 559-574.
Evans, Arthur R., Jr.. The Literary Art of Eugène Fromentin: A Study in Style and Motif, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1966.
"Eugene Fromentin", The Art Amateur, vol. 12, no. 1, Dec., 1884, p. 9.
"Fromentin, Eugène", Benezit Dictionary of Artists, published online 31 October 2011.
Gill, Hélène. "Eugene Fromentin and the Experience of the Desert: Self-quest in the Other's Territory," Chapter 3 in The Language of French Orientalist Painting, Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003.
Gillet, Louis. "Eugène Fromentin" in The Catholic Encyclopedia, New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909.
Gonse, Louis. Eugène Fromentin, Painter and Writer, translated by Mary Caroline Robbins, Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1888.
Harris, Frank. "Eugéne Fromentin: The Painter-Writer", Chapter XIV in Latest Contemporary Portraits, New York: The Macaulay Company, 1927.
Hartman, Elwood. Three Nineteenth-Century French Writer/Artists and the Maghreb: The Literary and Artistic Depictions of North Africa by Théophile Gautier, Eugène Fromentin, and Pierre Loti, Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1994.
Kaplan, Judith. "Eugéne Fromentin (1820-1876)" in Orientalist Writers, edited by Coeli Fitzpatrick and Dwayne A. Tunstall, Detroit : Gale Cengage Learning, 2012.
Magill, Frank N., editor. "Dominique by Eugéne Fromentin" in Masterplots: 2010 Plot Stories & Essay Reviews from the World's Fine Literature, Revised Edition, volume 3, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Salem Press, 1976.
Mickel, Emanuel J. Eugène Fromentin, Twayne's World Authors Series 640, Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1981.
Schapiro, Meyer. "Eugene Fromentin as Critic" in Theory and Philosophy of Art: Style, Artist and Society, Selected Papers, New York: George Braziller, 1994.
Thompson, James P. W. "Fromentin, Eugène(-Samuel-Auguste)", Grove Art Online, published online 2003.
Wright, Barbara. "Eugène Fromentin's 'Portrait de Jeune Femme' and the Possible Identification of Its Sources", The Burlington Magazine, vol. 116, no. 854, May, 1974, pp. 274–275.
Wright, Barbara. "A drawing for 'Hodna': an early painting by Eugène Fromentin," The Burlington Magazine, vol. 155, no. 1322, May, 2013, pp. 324-325.
Wright, Barbara. Eugène Fromentin: A Life in Art and Letters, Peter Lang, 2000.
Wright, Barbara. "Eugène Fromentin (1820-76)" in Key Writers on Art, volume I, edited by Chris Murray, New York: Routledge, 2003.

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