Artist Eugène Alexis Girardet
Eugène-Alexis
Girardet was born in Paris on 31 May 1853 into a family whose livelihood had
long been based on painting, engraving and lithography. Girardet attempts to
capture the images of North Africa accurately, emphasizing what he sees rather
than what his academic training has taught him that he should see. Shoemakers
Children of 1884 is a case in point. The
setting is a modest workshop with the cobbler seated at his bench as he focuses
on the task at hand. His children sit on
a low stone bench in front of the workshop, looking rather bored as they stare
into space while their father toils at his chosen craft. This is not a sentimental image, nor is it a
precise anthropological illustration; instead it is a detached depiction of
daily activity in an Arab family, painted in a loose naturalistic style. Throughout
the last two decades of the nineteenth century, Girardet continued his journeys
to North Africa and the Middle East. In
1898, he traveled to Egypt and Palestine, painting numerous scenes of Cairo and
Jerusalem. Stylistically his work showed
increasing influence from the Impressionists with looser brushwork and growing
attention to dappled and sparkling light effects.
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