Charles Desprez (1818–1898) - View Taken Around Ajaccio, Corsica - Oil On Paper

Charles Louis Émilien DESPREZ
(Maisons-Alfort, 1818 – Paris, 1898)  

View taken near Ajaccio  

Oil on paper mounted on canvas
Signed below, located and dated lower right
34 x 53 cm without frame
52 x 71 with frame
1851  

Grandson of a jeweler from Lille and son of Charles Louis Romain Desprez (1781-1849), civil servant, rosomaniac and mayor of Yèbles, Charles Desprez was born on September 18, 1818, in Maisons-Alfort. After completing his studies at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, Charles Desprez studied painting under Jules Coignet (1798-1860) and Alexandre Calame (1810-1864), and he exhibited some landscapes at the Salons of 1848, 1849 and in particular in 1852 a painting entitled Vue prise aux environs de Bastia which we can compare to our large oil on paper which depicts the surroundings of Ajaccio. Around this time, he began to travel in Europe and then in 1860 he went to Algeria and settled in Algiers. Since then, he has been busy with literary and journalistic work, and he has been awarded a large medal by the Société des Beaux-Arts d’Alger. In addition to articles published in Akhbar and Courrier de l’Algérie, Charles Desprez is responsible for a good number of literary works on Algeria, such as Menus propos sur Alger (1864, in-18), Alger naguère et maintenant (1868, in-18), Voyage à Oran (1872, in-18) for the most famous.
The artist died on May 25, 1898, in Paris in the 8th arrondissement at the age of 79 and is described on his death certificate as a painter and writer.  

The reverse of the stretcher reads: "Charles Desprez to his friend Octave de Rochebrune, May 3, 1869."
Étienne-Octave de Guillaume de Rochebrune was born in Fontenay-le-Comte on April 1, 1824. The son of an officer in the Grande Armée, Octave was sent to study in Paris at the Collège Stanislas, where he attended drawing classes with Jean-Louis Petit (1795-1875). He later joined the studio of Justin Ouvrié (1806-1879), a painter and lithographer specializing in cityscapes and monuments. Heir to the Château de Terre-Neuve in Bas-Poitou through his parents, Octave met many artists there, including Paul Baudry (1828-1886), Ferdinand Birotheau (1819-1892), and the scholar Benjamin Fillon (1819-1881). He also began exhibiting as a painter at the Paris Salon in 1845, 1847, and 1848. However, it was as an etcher that his talent was recognized. A keen enthusiast of this technique, he had a press installed in Newfoundland, which is still there today. Virtually self-taught, his etched work once again opened the doors of the Paris Salon to him in 1861. He then received numerous awards: the Salon's Gold Medal in 1865, 1868, and 1872, and was also honored at the Vienna World's Fair in 1873.
Octave de Rochebrune was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor on July 7, 1874.
The artist died on July 17, 1900, in Fontenay-le-Comte.