Skip to main content
Video Loading
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 10

Benjamin Eugène Fichel
The Painter and His Muse

19th Century

About the Item

Oil on panel signed in the lower right corner and presented in a period frame measuring 21" x 18.5". Provenance: Private Collection Bradbury Art and Antiques, Wiscasset, ME Benjamin Eugene Fichel, France, (1826 - 1895) B. Eugène Fichel was born on August 30th, 1826 in Paris. A talented young artist, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts at the young age of fifteen, where he eventually became a student of Martin Drolling and Paul Delaroche, the latter a winner of the Prix de Rome and whom he would most consistently cite as his master. Given his very young age and the rigorous training necessary as a student of the École des Beaux-Arts, Fichel did not exhibit his first painting until the 1849 Parisian Salon, where he showed Sainte Famille (Holy Family), Portrait de Hadji-Add-Hamid-Bey (Portrait of Hadji-Add-Hamid-Bey), and Portrait de M.L. (Portrait of M.L.). Fichel became a prolific Salon artist, beginning with many portraits, but later exhibiting, consistently and unwaveringly, historical and genre scenes inspired by the eighteenth century. Fichel chose to submit many historically-oriented works to the Salon, at that point considered the most elevated subject matter, such as his 1867 Salon entry “Ouvrez au Nom du Roi” (“Open in the Name of the King”). As his Salon career progressed, Fichel began submitting more often the types of intimate genre scenes influenced by Dutch painting, such as his 1883 Joueurs des Cartes (Card Players) and his 1888 Le Dejeuner (The Luncheon). Many of Fichel’s historically-oriented themes were those depicting episodes from the reign of Napoleon I. Louis Auvray, a nineteenth century art critic, took notice of Fichel’s 1865 Salon entry, L’Empereur Napoleon Ier Combinant des manœuvres (Palais de Compiègne) (The Emperor Napoleon I Combining Maneuvers (Compiègne Palace)), which was purchased by Princess Mathilde, Napoleon I’s niece. Auvray explains that Fichel’s (Exposition des Beaux-Arts : Salon de 1865, Paris: A. Levy, Fils, 1864, pg. 69): During his career at the Parisian Salon, Fichel was awarded several awards and continued to exhibit there until his death in 1895. He was awarded a third class medal in 1857 for Une Matinée Dramatique (A Dramatic Morning), a portrait painting, and two other works; a mention in 1861 for several works including La Première Leçon d’Armes (The First Weapon Lesson), Chanteurs Ambulants Dans un Cabaret (Traveling Singers in a Cabaret), and Baptême de Mlle Clairon (Baptism of Mlle Clairon); a medal in 1869 for La Nuit de 24 août 1572, avant les massacres (The Night of August 24th, 1572, before the massacres), and Le Fou qui Vend la Sagesse (The Insane who sells Wisdom) – based on a fable by La Fontaine; and a silver medal at the 1889 Exposition Universelle. He finalized his exhibition career with Au Café (At the Café) and Partie des Dames (Ladies’ Departure). Fichel achieved one of his highest honors in 1870 when he was named a Knight of the Legion of Honor. At the end of his career he had achieved, “an envied place among the genre painters of the French school of the nineteenth century.” (Zafran, 42). He died in 1895 in Paris. Fichel’s work can be found in many of France’s museums, including the Musée Magnin and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, and the Musées des Beaux-Arts in the cities of Lille, Rennes, Rouen, and Bordeaux.
  • Creator:
    Benjamin Eugène Fichel (1826 - 1895, French)
  • Creation Year:
    19th Century
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 21 in (53.34 cm)Width: 18.5 in (46.99 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Wiscasett, ME
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU506315097072

More From This Seller

View All
Playing Guitar by the Fire
By Sam Uhrdin
Located in Wiscasett, ME
This oil on canvas is signed and dated in the lower right and measures 32.5" x 37" including the frame. The scene depicts a young lady playing her guitar by the light of the fire. Th...
Category

1950s Victorian Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

A Welcome Visit
By Bernard De Hoog
Located in Wiscasett, ME
Oil on canvas, signed in the lower left. Measures 26" x 22" including the frame. An excellent example of De Hoog's work, which he was well known for depicting Dutch interior scenes. ...
Category

19th Century Dutch School Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

The Chemist
Located in Wiscasett, ME
Oil on canvas, signed in the lower right. Measures 36" x 41" including the frame. Johann Georg Meyer Von Bremen (German 1813-1886) was a genre painter. He was the son of master baker Johann Georg Meyer. His mother was strictly religious. From 1833 he studied at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts , which was led since 1826 by Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow, the son of the sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow. In addition to Schadow, Karl Ferdinand Son was his teacher there. Meyer acquired the necessary craftsmanship skills to make a living from the sale of his paintings, but he was initially unable to do so. From 1841 to 1852 he maintained his own studio in Düsseldorf. On his travels to Brussels and Antwerp Meyer experienced the works of Peter Paul Rubens and Anthonis van Dyck. In 1851 he married the singer Julia Beer...
Category

19th Century Victorian Interior Paintings

Materials

Oil

Tea Time
By Frank Bramley
Located in Wiscasett, ME
Signed and dated 92 lower left. Oil on canvas. Frank Bramley British, 1857-1915 Frank Bramley is considered one of the most important artists of the Newlyn School, the group of artists who settled in Newlyn, Cornwall during the 1880s and 1890s, drawn by the light, lifestyle and the example of Alexander Stanhope Forbes, and were at the forefront of 'British Impressionism'. He was particularly ‘in the news’ when his painting of a woman reading in a garden made the astonishing price of $590,000 at Sotheby's New York in late May 1996. As the seminal catalogue of the famous Newlyn School exhibition states, Bramley's reputation has rested for some time on Hopeless Dawn, his major RA exhibition of 1888, and which in recent years has been hung almost constantly at the Tate Gallery. Bramley was born in Lincolnshire and trained at Lincoln Art School, later at Verlat's Academy in Antwerp, from where he went to Venice in 1882-83, where our painting was executed. He first showed at the Royal Academy in London in 1884 (both paintings were Venetian scenes), and it was in the winter of 1884/5 that Bramley settled in Newlyn. He was a quiet and reserved figure, prone to bouts of melancholy. He worked on his own in a tiny studio in an old thatched cottage - the cottage consisted of two rooms, one at ground level (which was the studio) and one which was below ground which was inhabited by a woman who'd lost her arms and who managed to look after a set of tiny children as well as a small potato and turnip shop. Bramley moved to a purpose-built glass studio in 1889. He is known as the master of the so-called 'square-brush technique' which characterizes much of the best Newlyn School work and he used this until 1893, later than most of his colleagues. Bramley was friendly with the great artist Sargent and with him was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1894, being elected a full member in 1911. In 1891 he had married, and 4 years later they moved to the Midlands where his work became less socially orientated and more purely decorative. His last years were spent in a London flat...
Category

1890s Victorian Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Feeding the Baby
Located in Wiscasett, ME
Oil on canvas, signed upper left. Provenance: Sothebys Amsterdam, Private collection London, Private collection Palm Beach. His working period was from about 1894 to 1973, successively in Rotterdam, Heeze (Heeze-Leende), Hilversum and Laren. He was educated at the Craft School for decorative painters and received evening lessons at the Rotterdam Academy under the direction of A. van Maasdijk. He was a member of the Vereeniging Sint Lucas...
Category

Early 20th Century Dutch School Interior Paintings

Materials

Oil

A Mother and Her Children
By Bernard Pothast
Located in Wiscasett, ME
This is an original unique oil painting by the artist Bernard Pothast, signed in the lower right corner, featuring a mother and her children sitting around the kitchen table. Measu...
Category

Early 20th Century Dutch School Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

You May Also Like

Pair of French Neoclassical oil paintings by Dubost
By Antoine Dubost
Located in London, GB
Pair of French Neoclassical oil paintings by Dubost French, 1809/11 Frame: Height 70.5cm, width 86cm, depth 9cm Panel: Height 45cm, width 61c...
Category

1810s Baroque Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Baroque Italian Old Master, Madonna, Child, Angels, Oval, Marratta, Christmas
By Workshop Of Carlo Maratta
Located in Greven, DE
Religious Painting, depicting Madonna and the Child, surrounded by Angels by the Circle of Carlo Maratta (Maratti). This painting is wonderful example of...
Category

18th Century Baroque Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

18th century oil sketches for a Baroque interior - a pair
Located in London, GB
A FEAST OF THE GODS WITH VENUS AND BACCHUS Collections: With Appleby Brothers, London, June 1957; Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, 1961; John and Eileen Harris, acquired from the above, to 2015. Literature: Jacob Simon and Ellis Hillman, English Baroque Sketches: The Painted Interior in the Age of Thornhill, 1974, cat. no.12 (as by Louis Laguerre); Elizabeth Einberg (ed.), Manners and Morals: Hogarth and British Painting, 1700-1760, exh. cat., London (Tate Gallery), 1987, cat. no.10 (as by Louis Laguerre); Tabitha Barber and Tim Bachelor, British Baroque: Power and Illusion, exh. cat., London (Tate Britain), 2020. Exhibited: Twickenham, Marble Hill House, English Baroque Sketches: The Painted Interior in the Age of Thornhill, 1974, no.12 (as by Louis Laguerre); London, Tate Gallery, Manners and Morals: Hogarth and British Painting, 1700-1760, 1987, no.10 (as by Louis Laguerre); London, Tate Britain, British Baroque: Power and Illusion, cat. no 92, 2020. CUPID AND PSYCHE BEFORE JUPITER Collections: With Appleby Brothers, London, June 1957; Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, 1961; Anthony Hobson, acquired from the above, to 2015. These recently re-united paintings are the most ambitious surviving baroque ceiling sketches made in Britain in the early eighteenth century. From the Restoration until the rise of Palladianism in the 1720s decorative history painting formed the preeminent artistic discipline in Britain. It was a field dominated by Continental artists including the Italian Antonio Verrio and the Frenchmen Louis Laguerre and Louis Chéron...
Category

Early 18th Century Baroque Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Italian Baroque religious figurative painting of the 17th century oil on canvas
Located in Florence, IT
Painted with gilt wood frame, 58 x 75 cm. is the work of the painter couple Viviano Codazzi (Valsassina 1603-Rome 1670), who specialized as a quadraturist and landscape painter, and...
Category

1640s Baroque Interior Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Poor Poet Antique German Oil Painting after the famous Carl Spitzweg work
By German School
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
The Poor Poet German School, early 20th century after the original painting by Carl Spitzweg (c.1839) inscribed verso oil on board, framed framed: 15.5 x 17.5 inches board: 12 x 15 i...
Category

Early 20th Century Mannerist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Caravaggist Italian painter - 17th century figure painting - Saint Jerome
By Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Il Guercino)
Located in Varmo, IT
Caravaggesque painter (17th century) - Saint Jerome. 47 x 73 cm. Antique oil painting on canvas, without frame. Condition report: Lined canvas. Good state of conservation of the p...
Category

Mid-17th Century Baroque Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All