Prosper Marilhat 1811-1847

Georges Antoine Prosper MARILHAT (Vertaizon, 1811 - Paris, 1847) Large canvas, framed dimensions: 136 cm / 118 cm. Prosper Marilhat (1811-1847) was a renowned Orientalist painter whose promising career was abruptly cut short by illness at the age of 36. Among the first Frenchmen to travel to North Africa and Egypt in the 1830s, Marilhat, through his paintings, revealed the beauty of Africa to the French public. In May 1831, he was invited by Charles von Hügel to participate in his famous exhibition in India, but he instead traveled to Alexandria, Egypt. Over the following months, from October 1831 to May 1833, he produced ten sketchbooks that served as the basis for his later paintings. In 1835, he travelled to Italy and spent 1836 in Provence. He exhibited at all the Parisian Salons from 1837 to 1841, as well as at the Salon of 1844. He specialized in architectural and landscape painting, but also produced portraits, including that of his friend Théodore Chassériau, now in the Louvre.