Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager

Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager (1814–1879) was a French painter, noted for his marine scenes and Orientalist works.

Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager
Portrait of Henri Durand-Brager
Born21 May 1814
Died25 April 1879
Paris, France
NationalityFrench
EducationGudin and Eugène Isabey,
Known forPainter and photographer
MovementOrientalism

Life and career

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Naval combat near Mogador, Morocco, ca. 1845

Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager, a French marine painter, was born at Dol in Brittany in 1814. He studied under Gudin and Eugène Isabey.[1]

He was a naval officer who rose to the rank of captain.[2] In 1840, he accompanied the fleet which repatriated Napoleon's remains from St. Helena, which island afforded him subjects for various pictures. He spent much of his time in travelling; he went to Buenos Aires with the squadron, Montevideo in 1841–42 aboard a French warship,[3] and explored Uruguay and Brazil; he accompanied the expeditions to Tangiers and Mogador, and to Madagascar. He painted views of the places he visited, and also naval combats and sea-pieces. He died in 1879.

In the 1850s, he was in the Crimea during the war with Russia, where he turned his hand to photography as well as painting. He was one of about fifteen photographers, including Felice Beato, Roger Fenton and James Robertson, who photographed soldiers, barracks, camp life and battlefields and were the first to record a major war on film.[4] Later, he returned to Constantinople where he made photographs of the landscape, monuments and the people.[5]

He was a versatile painter, producing naval scenes, genre works, costumbrismo works, landscapes[6] and works with Orientalist themes. There are several of his works in the galleries of Versailles.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ International Federation of Photographic Art, Camera, C.J. Bucher, 1974, p. 33
  2. ^ International Federation of Photographic Art, Camera, C.J. Bucher, 1974, p. 33; The Log of Mystic Seaport, Volumes 40-41, Mystic Historical Association, 1988, p.49
  3. ^ A Guide to the Art of Latin America, 1948, p. 319
  4. ^ Hewitson, M., The People's War: Histories of Violence in the German Lands, 1820-1888, Oxford University Press, 2017, p. 194; Bustarret, C., Crimée, 1854-1856: Premiers Reportages de Guerre [Exposition du 24 Octobre 1994 au 8 Janvier 1995], Musée de l'Armée, Hotel National des Invalides, Paris, Le Musée, 1994, p. 99 and p. 103
  5. ^ Öztuncay, B., The Photographers of Constantinople: Text & Photographs, Aygaz, 2003, p. 133; Jacobson, K., Odalisques & Arabesques: Orientalist Photography 1839-1925, Quaritch, 2007, p. 23
  6. ^ A Guide to the Art of Latin America, 1948, p. 319
  •   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainBryan, Michael (1886). "Durand-Brager, Jean Baptiste Henri". In Graves, Robert Edmund (ed.). Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers (A–K). Vol. I (3rd ed.). London: George Bell & Sons.
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