American Painter, 1847-1928 was an American artist, born in Tuskegee, Alabama. An American Southerner, born in Tuskeegee, Alabama, the son of a physician, Bridgman would become one of the United States' most well-known and well-regarded painters and become known as one of the world's most talented "Orientalist" painters. He began as a draughtsman in New York City, for the American Bank Note Company in 1864-1865, and studied art in the same years at the Brooklyn Art Association and at the National Academy of Design; but he went to Paris in 1866 and became a pupil of Jean-Leon Gerôme. Paris then became his headquarters. A trip to Egypt in 1873-1874 resulted in pictures of the East that attracted immediate attention, and his large and important composition, The Funeral Procession of a Mummy on the Nile, in the Paris Salon (1877), bought by James Gordon Bennett, brought him the Cross of the Legion of Honor. Other paintings by him were An American Circus in Normandy, Procession of the Bull Apis (now in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), and a Rumanian Lady (in the Temple collection, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). In 1867, Bridgman entered the studio of the noted academic painter Jean-Leon Gerôme (1824-1904), where he was deeply influenced by Gerôme's precise draftsmanship, smooth finishes, and concern for Middle-Eastern themes. (Bridgman would even become known as "the American Gerôme.") No mere imitator, however, Bridgman would later adopt a more naturalistic aesthetic, emphasizing bright colors and painterly brushwork. Bridgman made his first trip to North Africa between 1872 and 1874, dividing his time between Algeria and Egypt. There he executed approximately three hundred sketches, which became the source material for several later oil paintings. Additional visits to the region throughout the 1870s and 1880s allowed him to amass a collection of costumes, architectural pieces, and objets d'art, which often appear in his paintings. (Amusingly, John Singer Sargent noted that Bridgman's overstuffed studio, along with the Eiffel Tower, were Paris's must-see attractions.) Though Bridgman maintained a lifelong connection to France, his popularity in America never waned. Indeed, in 1890, the artist had a one-man show of over 400 pictures in New York's 5th Avenue galleries. When the show moved to Chicago's Art Institute, it contained only 300 works - testimony to the high number of sales Bridgman had made.  Related Paintings of Frederick Arthur Bridgman :. | Procession in Honor of Isis | The Day of the Prophet at Oued el Kebir | The Siesta | Interior of a Biskra Cafe, Algiers. | Pharaoh's army engulfed by the Red Sea |
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Antoine Plamondon
(ca. 1804-1895) was a Canadian artist who painted mainly portraits and religious images in 19th-century Quebec. Plamondon was born in 1804 (or 1802) at L'Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec, the son of the village grocer. He went to school in Saint-Roch, a suburb of Quebec City, after which he was apprenticed to Joseph Legare (1795-1855), a picture restorer and amateur painter. In 1826 Plamondon travelled to Paris where he studied with classical portraitists such as Paulin Guerin (1783-1855). Works from this period are scarce. In 1830, after the Louis-Philippe uprisings, Plamondon returned to Quebec. While his portraits were of living subjects, many of his religious paintings (commissioned by various churches and religious orders around Quebec City) were based on engravings of old masters. His portrait work was notable for his full-face, close-up, and tightly comosed style as well as a concentration on the latest style of clothing. His later portraits showed more roundness in the modelling and far more space in the composition. By 1850 Plamondon had moved to the country at Neuville, with his mother, a brother, and a sister, where he lived until the 1890s. Much of his work during this period were religious paintings, copies of old masters, done for local churches. Plamondon never married. He was a lifelong monarchist and supporter of the Conservative Party, a friend of Sir George-Étienne Cartier and Sir Étienne Tache, but broke with the Conservatives over the execution of Louis Riel. His 1882 self-portrait was probably his last work He died in Neuville in 1895.
Sarah Miriam Peale
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 19, 1800 - February 4, 1885, Philadelphia) was an American portrait painter, one of the notable family of artists descended from the miniaturist and still-life painter James Peale, who was her father. She is noted as a portrait painter, mainly of politicians and military figures. Lafayette sat for her four times. Sarah was James Peale's youngest daughter and was trained by her father, and uncle Charles Willson Peale. She served as a studio assistant to her father. Her first public works date from 1816 with subjects such as flowers and still-life but soon turned to portraiture, In 1818, she spent three months with Rembrandt Peale, her cousin, in Baltimore, and again in 1820 and 1822. He influenced her painting style and subject matter. For 25 years, she painted in Baltimore (1822-47) and, intermittently, in Washington, D.C. She was accepted to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1824 along with her sister Anna Claypoole Peale, the first women to achieve this distinction. Over 100 commissioned portrait paintings are known from her time in Baltimore and she was the most prolific artist in the city during that era. Her subjects were wealthy Baltimore residents and politicians from Washington DC.
Paul Frederick De Caselli
Swiss, 1775-1817