Brought up in the tradition of the Classicist school, Prosper Marilhat
(1811-1847) only “formed himself” when the world of colour was
discovered to him under the glowing sky of the Holy Land and Egypt,
where he painted _The Mosque of the Khalif Hakem, at Cairo_ (No.
615). Another Orientalist of great distinction, who, after being a
favourite pupil of Ingres, became attracted by the fiery romanticism
of Delacroix, was the Creole Théodore Chassériau (1819-1856). His
works at the Louvre illustrate the earlier better than the later phase
of his art. Chassériau was still entirely under the spell of Ingres
when he painted, in 1844, the decoration of the Cour des Comptes,
which building was destroyed under the Commune. _Peace_ (No. 121A) is
a fragment of this important decorative work, which may be said to
constitute a link between Ingres and Puvis de Chavannes. _The Chaste
Susannah_ (No. 121) and the _Portrait of Father Lacordaire, Dominican
Preacher_ (No. 121B), are again clear evidence of Ingres’s influence
upon Chassériau at the beginning of his brief career.
A man of profound culture and rare critical acumen, Eugène Fromentin
(1820-1876) was perhaps greater as a critic than as a painter. He, too,
travelled repeatedly in Algeria and Egypt, where he found abundant
material both for his brush and pen. He did not look upon the East
with the curiosity of the traveller, nor did he let the strange land
work upon his romantic imagination. His pictures, somewhat timid in
technique but marked by great refinement, reveal, on the other hand, a
thorough understanding of the sad monotony of the sun-parched desert,
and the chivalrous, noble bearing of its Arab inhabitants. His refined
talent shows to best advantage in _Hawking in Algeria_ (No. 305).