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 :. | The Siesta | An evening gathering at a North-African encampment | Interior of a Biskra Cafe, Algiers. | River Landscape with Deer | Pharaoh's army engulfed by the Red Sea |
Related Artists:
gottfrid kallstenius
seated male model, 1887-88. royal academy of fine arts
James Fairman
American, 1826 - 1904
Marianne von Werefkin
Marianne von Werefkin (Russian, 10 September 1860, Tula, Russia - 6 February 1938, Ascona, Switzerland), born Marianna Wladimirowna Werewkina (transliteration Marianna Vladimirovna Verevkina), was a Russian-Swiss Expressionist painter. Marianne von Werefkin was born the daughter of the commander of the Ekaterinaburg Regiment. In 1880, she became a student of Ilya Repin, the most important painter of Russian Realism. Her progress was dealt a setback by a hunting accident in 1888 in which she shot her right hand, the one with which she painted. In 1892 she met Alexej von Jawlensky, who desired to be her protege, and in 1896 she, Jawlensky, and their servant moved to Munich. For the sake of Jawlensky's painting, Werefkin interrupted her painting for almost ten years. She created her first expressionist works in 1907. In these she followed Paul Gauguin's and Louis Anquetin's style of "surface painting", while also showing the influence of Edvard Munch. In 1909, the Neue Kenstlervereinigung Menchen (New Association of Artists in Munich, NKVM) was founded. It became a forum of exhibitions and programming. At the outbreak of the First World War, they immigrated to Switzerland, near Geneva. They later moved to Zurich. By 1918, they had separated, and Werefkin moved alone to Ascona, on Lago Maggiore. In 1924 she founded the artist group "Grober Bar" (i.e., Big Bear, Ursa Major).