Frederick Arthur Bridgman
Frederick Arthur Bridgman (* 10. November 1847 in Tuskegee , Alabama ; † 13. January 1928 Rouen , France ) was an American painter of Orientalism , artist , musician and writer .
Life
Bridgman was the son of a doctor. When his father died in 1850, the mother and two sons went to New York . There Bridgman began an apprenticeship as an engraver at the American Banknote Company in 1864 . In parallel, he became a student at the Brooklyn Art Association (BAA) and later at the National Academy of Design .
In the following year, Bridgman had such enormous success with a picture in the BAA exhibition that some business people were willing to sponsor him. Bridgman resigned and went to France in 1866. His first stop was Port-Avent ( Brittany ), where he made friends with Robert Wylie and his circle.
From autumn 1866 to autumn 1870 Bridgman was a student of Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris ; but he always spent a few weeks in summer with Wylie in Brittany. Bridgman soon made the acquaintance of Thomas Eakins , Harry Humphry Moore and Earl Shinn in Gérôme's studio . Bridgman's first exhibition in Paris was the Paris Salon of 1870 and it was a great success.
The Franco-Prussian War interrupted Bridgman's career and forced him into exile; first to Brittany, then later to Spain. From there he undertook his first study trip through North Africa and returned to Paris in the spring of 1873.
In the winter of 1873/74 he made another trip: together with Charles Sprague Pearce , a pupil of Léon Bonnat , he went to Cairo in December 1873 and undertook an extensive trip to the Nile. During this trip Bridgman discovered photography for himself ; In addition to many drawings and paintings, he also brought home hundreds of photographs as spoils. His best-known picture from this trip was The Mummy's funeral and now finally established his success as an artist. During these years, Jay Hall Conaway also became his student.
He married Florence Matt Baker from Boston in Paris. Since his wife was suffering from nerves, the couple spent the winter of 1885/86 in Algiers, since the wife's climate there seemed more beneficial. The greatest success of the following years was probably the participation in the world exhibition of 1889 with five paintings.
In 1901 his wife died of her nerve ailments. After three years of mourning Bridgman married Marthe Yaeger for the second time. After the First World War , his fame began to fade. Bridgman still painted, but could no longer build on his old successes. He and his wife moved to Lyon-la-Forêt ( Normandy ) and died in Rouen in 1928 at the age of 80.
Bridgman was not very interested in politics, but from his letters it can be seen that he did not agree with France's colonial policy. As an academic painter, he admired the impressionists Édouard Manet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir . Together with Edwin Lord Weeks , Bridgman is an important representative of the "orientalists" of the American school.
Honors
- 1907 - Officer of the Legion of Honor
Works
- Afternoon in Algiers
- The Spanish woman
- The orange seller
- The return
- In the kasbah
- Winters in Algiers (travel memories illustrated with woodcuts, published 1888)
literature
- Gerald M. Ackerman: Les orientalistes de l'école americaine , ACR, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-86770-067-1 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bridgman, Frederick Arthur |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American orientalist painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 10, 1847 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tuskegee , Alabama |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 13, 1928 |
| Place of death | Rouen , France |