Marseille 1877, Alexandre Brun (detail)

Marseille 1877, by Alexandre Brun. Oil on canvas signed lower right. Dimensions 46x38 cm Very beautiful palette and very nice touch! Alexandre Jean-Baptiste Brun was born in Marseille on November 3, 1853. Young, he studied painting in Paris, at the École des Beaux Arts, with masters such as Alexandre Cabanel, Carolus-Duran and Felix Bracquemond. He painted notably with Adolphe Monticelli, Louis Tinayre and Henri Pinta. A marineist painter, he creates numerous illustrations for encyclopedias and works dedicated to the sea published by Larousse. An accomplished yachtsman, he accompanied Prince Albert 1st of Monaco on some of his oceanographic expeditions. The prince will invite him to collaborate in the creation of the frescoes of the Grand Amphitheater of the Oceanographic Institute of Paris, the construction of which he is financing. Alexandre Brun also executed commissions for Baroness Nathaniel de Rothschild, Barons Arthur and Edmond de Rothschild, and relatives, such as Louis Libreck, for whom he produced perhaps his most famous work: a series of watercolors immortalizing the collection. of his friend's orchids. A prolific painter, he is the author of numerous family portraits, landscapes (banks of the Seine, Normandy coasts, port of Joliette, coves of Marseille) as well as still lifes. A member of the Salon des artistes français from 1877, he sent his works there almost every year until 1934. He exhibited in London at the Royal Academy in 1881 and 1882 as well as at the Universal Exhibition of 1889, during from which he received the bronze medal, marine section, before taking a break to devote himself to traveling in various regions of France and Algeria. He suspended his activities again in 1914 and resumed them at the end of the war until 1934, when he retired to Malmousque, in his villa "L'Ouragan", exhibiting only in the Jouvène gallery in Marseille. A prolific painter, Alexandre Brun paints numerous seascapes (oils on wood, on canvas, watercolors), representing life at sea, scenes of life (The Sailor's Departure, 1885, After a Shipwreck, 1888), fishing or swimming (Le Bain de mer, 1883), views of ports or ships (mainly trois-masts and tartanes). He also produced illustrations of significant events (The Taking of Sfax, 1882, President Carnots' embarking aboard the Formidable 1890), watercolors of historic ships (Le Soleil Royal, Le Royal Louis) as well as lithographs of warships: Le Marengo, L'Océan, Le Suffren and L'Epervier) A large number of its marines were purchased in 2002 by the National Maritime Museum which, after a long and meticulous restoration campaign, studied, classified and inventoried them. , restored and photographed. The collection is currently kept in the reserves of the Maritime Museum in Chaillot, then will be transferred in 2016 to the new Conservation Center in Dugny.