Eugène Antoine Prieur Bardin (1860 - 1905) — View Of Constantinople, 1901

View of Constantinople, 1901
Oil on canvas, signed and dated 1901 lower left
34 x 55 cm

Eugène Prieur-Bardin: Lights of Constantinople and Marseille

Eugène Antoine Prieur-Bardin was born in 1860 in Vénissieux (Rhône), from a family with provincial roots. Trained at the Beaux-Arts, he moved towards an orientalist genre driven by a sensitivity for distant atmospheres. In the 1890s, he settled in Constantinople, where he lived from his painting, while his works demonstrate a careful eye for the play of light on the monuments and ports of Turkey, particularly the Bosphorus. Married in 1891 in Algiers, he continued his career in the Ottoman Empire, multiplying views of Constantinople. Famous paintings include "The New Mosque Seen from the Galata Bridge" (1901), a vibrant example of his Orientalist style, rich in light and architectural details. At the turn of the century, he returned to Marseille, his studio now anchored on the Mediterranean coast. There, he continued to paint maritime and port landscapes with the same attention to detail. A 1900 canvas, titled "View of the Port of Marseille with the Major," bears witness to this, signed and dated on the canvas. His last work, dated 1905, "The Port of Cassis," illustrates his attachment to Provençal landscapes, capturing a peaceful atmosphere of late afternoon. Sometimes wrongly considered a namesake of another artist, recent genealogical research has clarified his identity: he is indeed Eugène Antoine Prieur-Bardin, born in Vénissieux, active first in Constantinople, then in Marseille until his death in 1905. He remains an inspired witness to fin-de-siècle Orientalism - his works transmit moments of Mediterranean light on shores or under distant domes. Thirty-year-old, he captured worlds in transition with a touch that was both rested and sensitive, between Impressionist tradition and oriental charm, until the end of his life.

Discover more works by this artist on the gallery's website: https://www.galeriepentcheff.fr/fr/peintre-eugene-antoine-prieur-bardin#Bio