Descamps

A carte-de-visite portrait of the French artist Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (1803-1860).

Although he made only one trip to the Middle East, visiting Turkey, Greece and North Africa in 1828, Decamps established a considerable reputation as a painter of Orientalist themes and of biblical scenes set in convincing locations. In this category, perhaps his best known and most successful works are Joseph sold by his brethren and Moses and the daughter of Pharaoh.He also produced a large number of genre scenes of domestic life in Algeria, and numerous animal paintings. Passionately fond of animals, particularly dogs, he painted them with great sympathy, but his favourite animal subject was monkeys, which he depicted with grotesque humour. His The Monkey Connoisseurs is a biting satire of the jury of the French Academy of Painting, which had rejected several of his early works.

Decamps died on 22 August 1860 as a result of falling from his horse while hunting at Fontainebleau.

Photographed by Disdéri of Paris.