Eugène Fromentin

Eugène Samuel Auguste Fromentin, born October 24, 1820 in La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime), where he died August 27, 1876, is a French painter and writer. He is one of the major representatives of orientalist painting. He is the son of Pierre-Samuel-Toussaint Fromentin-Dupeux (1786-1867), doctor and amateur painter, and Françoise-Jenny Billotte (1797-1867). After a brilliant schooling, Eugène Fromentin went to Paris in November 1839 where he obtained a law degree at the beginning of 1843. His father then gave him authorization to enter the studio of the painter Jean-Charles Rémond which he soon left for that of the landscaper Louis-Nicolas Cabat. In 1846, without the knowledge of his family, he visited Algeria with two friends and was thus able to fill his notebooks with sketches of the landscapes and inhabitants of North Africa, thereby joining the movement of Orientalism. Like Théophile Gautier, he had been fascinated by Prosper Marilhat's submissions to the Paris Salon of 1844. Fro...