Théodore Frère

Charles-Théodore Frère (21 June 1814, Paris – 24 March 1888) was a French Orientalist painter.

Charles-Théodore Frère:La halte de chameaux au caravansérail

Biography

Painter of historical subjects, genre scenes, local scenes, landscapes (with figures) and seascapes; watercolourist and draughtsman. Orientalist.

The son of a Paris music publisher, Frère studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under Léon Cogniet and Camille Roqueplan. On completing his studies, he travelled throughout France visiting Alsace, Auvergne and Normandy. One of the painter’s earliest drawings, maybe it‘s even his earliest drawing, he did with pencil on paper - showing a rural french landscape with an old farm, entitled „Schlestadt“ and dated 1833. Between 1871 and 1919/20 this town in Alsace was called Schlettstadt; since 1920 - up to now - it is called Sélestat.

After returning to Paris, he exhibited Vue des Environs de Strasbourg at the 1834 Paris Salon. His exhibits at the Salon in subsequent years were nearly all Orientalist paintings as a result of several journeys to Africa and the Near East.[1] . Charles Théodore Frère exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1834 to 1881, participated in the Expositions Universelles of 1855, 1867 and 1878 in Paris and, up to and including 1887, in the Salon des Artistes Français. He was awarded medals in 1848 and in 1865.

After a stay in Algiers in 1836, he left with the army for Constantine which was taken by french troops on 13th October 1837, returning to Paris in 1839. Like his younger brother Pierre-Édouard, he was a prolific painter. During his first trip to Algeria, he completed works for the King of Württemberg. Around 1851, he undertook a further journey to the Near East, visiting Malta, Greece, Egypt and Turkey becoming one of the few artists to paint Beirut, Damascus and Palmyra. In 1853, he established a studio in Cairo, becoming the court painter there. The viceroy of Egypt elevated him to the rank of bey.[1]

In 1869, he once again travelled to the Egypt, now as a member of Empress Eugénie's party, for the opening of the Suez Canal. She commissioned a series of watercolours which could not be delivered to her owing to the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. Instead they were given to her friend and pupil, the Marquis of Puisaye.


His painting "SUNSET ON THE NILE, 1877" has been exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1877 (Cat. Nr. 872), Collection Berko Fine Paintings - Belgium.

SUNSET ON THE NILE 1877

Selected works
  • Schle(tt)stadt (1833; debut?)
  • Vue des Environs de Strasbourg (1834)
  • Vue de la Ville de Constantine (1841)
  • La Prise de Constantine (1843)
  • Vue de la Mosquée Sidi Abd-Er-Raham
  • Bazar A Beyrouth (1857)
  • Scène de marché au Caire (1864)
  • Le café Jalata à Constantinople (1865)
  • l’Ile de Philae (1865)
  • Scène de rue au Caire (1869)
  • Sunset on the Nile (c. 1877)
  • Jérusalem vue de la vallée de Jéhosafat (c. 1880/81)


  • Scène de marché au Caire (1864)
  • Vue de la Ville de Constantine (1841)
  • Jérusalem vue de la vallée de Jéhosafat (c. 1880/81)

References
  1. "Charles Theodore Frere", Rehs Galleries. Retrieved 3 May 2012.

Sources and bibliography
  • Clarence Cook, Art et Artistes de notre temps, 1888.
  • Charles Stranahan, Histoire de la peinture française, New York, Charles Scriner, 1888, p. 228.
  • Lorinda Munson Bryant, Images et peintres français, London, T Fischer Unwin., 1923, p. 111.
  • J. R. Soubiran, Le Paysage Provençal et l’École de Marseille avant les Impressionnistes, 1845-1874, Musée de Toulon, 1992, pp. 94–95.
  • Dictionnaire Bénézit, Gründ, Paris, 1999.
  • Marion Vidal-Bué, L’Algérie des peintres, Éditions Paris-Méditerranée, 2002, pp. 144–7.
  • Elisabeth Cazenave, L’Afrique du Nord révélée par les Musées de Province, Edt, Bernard Giovangeli Association Abd el Tif, 2004, p. 49 and p. 483.
  • Catherine Granger, L’Empereur et les arts, la liste civile de Napoléon III, Edt de l’École des Chartes, 2005, p. 866.
  • Ministère de l'Instruction Publique et des Beaux-Arts; Direction des Beaux-Arts, Salon de 1877; 94e exposition officielle depuis l'année 1673, Paris 1877, Cat. Nr. 872.


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