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| Frederick Arthur Bridgman |
| 1847-1928 |
| American Artist |
| Frederick Arthur Bridgman was born in Alabama, USA. When Frederick was only three years old his father, a doctor, died. His mother sensing the north-south tensions prior to the Civil War, decided to return with her two sons to Boston in the north. However soon afterwards they moved to New York where Frederick, who was already showing artistic talent, joined the American Banknote Company as an apprentice engraver. In the Autumn of 1866 he joined the atelier of Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris, where he studied for 4 years, spending the summers back at Pont-Avent with Wylie. Bridgeman spent the winter of 1872-3 in Spain and North Africa starting in Tangiers then on to to Algeria. He spent his time between Paris and Algeria, returning to Algiers during the winter of 1885-6 becuase of his wifes ailing health. The next ten years was a period of uninterrupted success. He continued to paint even more exotic North African scenes. However, feeling a need for new subject matter, he later made an attempt at a symbolist style, even turning to society portraiture, and then, in the 1890's, returning to historical and biblical themes just like his mentor Gérôme. But non of this later work was as successful as his Orientalist compositions of the previous decade. After the First World War, his popularity declined and he moved away from Paris to Lyons-la-Forêt in Normandy where, although he continued to paint, he died in 1928 almost forgotten by his former admiring public. Frederick Arthur Bridgman is considered to be one of the doyens of the American Orientalist school. |
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