Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps

Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps. photography

Farm in Fontainebleau

Hunting dogs

Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (born March 3, 1803 in Paris , † August 22, 1860 ) was a French painter .

Life

Decamps was a student of the painters Alexandre Abel de Pujol and Eugène Delacroix . Decamps soon found his style, but was influenced by Delacroix to paint "en pleine air". At the age of 24 Decamps went on a one-year study trip to Constantinople and Asia Minor in 1827 , where he found his subjects in the local people's life. Many of the sketches and watercolors that Decamps brought back from this trip served as templates for paintings that he created over the next few years.

In addition to many other works, Decamps excelled at home with the scenes "The Turkish Guard" (1834), "The Children Playing with a Turtle" (1836) and "The Spectators at an Execution" (1839). In addition, he devoted himself particularly to the observation of animal life, primarily with his ironic characterization, which then led to parodistic creations, especially in groups of monkeys. His monkeys as musicians, cooks, bakers, butchers, and painters show a drastic parody of human physiognomy. The most successful of his monkey pictures was a biting but funny satire against the academic jury of the Paris Salon , which very often did not allow his pictures to be part of their annual art exhibitions.

Scissors grinder

Decamps also used his play with light and color in his depictions of French country life. In his historical ("The Siege of Clermont") and his religious ("Joshua's victory over the Ammonites"), however, it becomes apparent that these lacked the liveliness of the earlier genre scenes. The charcoal drawings of landscapes, on the other hand, gain their charm from the simplicity of their representation.

The patrol of the Janissaries in Smyrna . Painting, 1828

In his last years Decamps discovered the park of Fontainebleau Castle , which he also visited regularly to paint. Decamps also met his tragic end in the forest of Fontainebleau. On the occasion of a royal parforce hunt, a horse shied away and despite the experienced rider it could not be calmed down quickly enough. Alexandre Gabriel Decamps died at the age of 57 as a result of his head injuries.

Works (selection)

• Bulldog and Scotch Terrier , canvas, 104 × 135 cm, Paris , Louvre
• Christ before Judgment (1847), canvas, 144 × 105 cm, Paris, Louvre
• The defeat of the Cimbri , (1833), canvas, 130 × 195 cm, Paris, Louvre
• Duck Hunt (1843), canvas, 13 × 41 cm, Moscow , Pushkin Museum
• Bells ringing 1841, canvas, 58 × 48 cm
• The Turkish patrol
• The learned dogs 1831
• The dog hospital 1831
• The Turkish Guard 1834
• Children playing with a turtle, 1836
• The audience at an execution in 1839
• The exuberant Turkish school youth 1842
• The Turkish butcher 1843
• The Turkish coffee house 1844
• The Siege of Clermont 1842
• The victory of Joshua over the Ammonites
• Interior: Peasant girl reading 1824, canvas, 46 × 38 cm
• The caravan undated. (In the cut-out used as a dust jacket in an edition of Baudelaire , The artificial paradises of 2000 ISBN 3-7175-4002-5 )

Web links

Commons : Alexandre-Gabriel_Decamps  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps at Google Arts & Culture
• The Defeat of the Cimbri
• The painting monkey
• The Turkish patrol

This article is based on a text in the public domain from Meyers Konversations-Lexikon , 4th edition from 1888 to 1890.

Please only remove this note if you have revised the article to such an extent that the text reflects the current state of knowledge on this topic, this has been proven and it meets today's linguistic requirements.
To refer to the Meyers article afterwards, you can{{ Meyers Online | Volume | Page}} to use.