FROMENTIN, Eugène (1820-1876), French painter, was born at La Rochelle in December 1820. After leaving school he studied for some years under Louis Cabat, the landscape painter. Fromentin was one of the earliest pictorial interpreters of Algeria, having been able, while quite young, to visit the land and people that suggested the subjects of most of his works, and to store his memory as well as his portfolio with the picturesque and characteristic details of North African life. In 1849 he obtained a medal of the second class. In 1852 he paid a second visit to Algeria, accompanying an Archaeological mission, and then completed that minute study of the scenery of the country and of the habits of its people which enabled him to give to his after work the realistic accuracy that comes from intimate knowledge. In a certain sense his works are not more artistic results than contributions to ethnological science. His first great success was produced at the Salon of 1847, by the Gorges de la Chiffa. Among his more important works are—La Place de la Brèche à Constantine, 1849; Enterrement Maure, 1853; Bateleurs Nègres and Audience chez un Chalife, 1859; Berger Kabyle and Courriers Arabes, 1861; Bivouac Arabe, Chasse au Faucon, Fauconnier Arabe (now at the Luxembourg), 1863; Chasse au Heron, 1865; Voleurs de Nuit, 1867; Centaurs and Arabes attaqués par une Lionne, 1868; Halte de Muletiers, 1869; Le Nil and Un Souvenir d’Esneh, 1875. Fromentin was much influenced in style by Eugène Delacroix. His works are distinguished by striking composition, great dexterity of handling, and brilliancy of colour. In them is given with great truth and refinement the unconscious grandeur of barbarian and animal attitudes and gestures. His later works, however, show signs of an exhausted ...