Fromentin, Eugène-Samuel-Auguste

Fromentin, Eugène-Samuel-Auguste 

Born Oct. 24, 1820, in La Rochelle; died Aug. 27, 1876, in Saint-Maurice, near La Rochelle. French painter, writer, and art historian.

Fromentin traveled through North Africa in 1846, 1848, and 1852–53. Impressions from his travels are reflected in his paintings and books of sketches (Summer in the Sahara, 1857; A Year in Sahel, 1859). His novel Domenique (1863; Russian translation, 1930), which in many ways is autobiographical, enjoyed popularity. Fromentin’s most important work, The Masters of Past Time (1876; Russian translation, 1966), is an excellent analysis of the development of classical and modern art and includes descriptions of individual artists and their styles.

WORKS

Oeuvres complètes, vols. 1–2. Paris, 1937.

REFERENCES

Kantor, A. “Starye mastera Fromantena i frantsuzskoe iskusstvo vtoroi poloviny XIX v.” in Zapadnoevropeiskoe iskusstvo vtoroi poloviny XIX v. Moscow, 1975. Pages 77–91.
Evans, A. R. The Literary Art of Eugène Fromentin. Baltimore, 1964.
Bialostocki, J. “Eugène Fromentin, critique de l’art d’autrefois.” In Etudes d’art français offertes à Charles Sterling. Paris, 1975. Pages 127–38.