Frédéric Legrip. Original Drawing. View Of The Tour De l'Horloge In évreux. [19th Century].

Oil pencil and white highlights. 48 x 32.5 cm, glued by the corners to a blue sheet measuring 53.4 x 40.9 cm. Traces of folding and light creasing, small hole near right edge.

Signed at top: "frédéric LeGrip". Title at bottom right: "Tour de l'Horloge à Évreux, croquis sur nature".

Handwritten dedication at right, on the wall of a house since disappeared with the construction of Évreux town hall and its esplanade in the late 19th century: "Souvenir normand à mon ami M. Ph. de Chennevières, Frédéric Legrip".

Philippe de Chennevières, or Charles-Philippe de Chennevières-Pointel (1820-1899) was a Norman art historian born in Falaise. He was one of Frédéric Legrip's patrons, and above all his friend, who collaborated, through lithography and engraving, on his Portraits inédits d'Artistes français (Paris, Vignères, Dumoulin et Rapilly, 1853).

Frédéric LEGRIP (1817-1871) :
A painter of landscape, history and portraits, Frédéric Legrip was born in Rouen on September 5, 1817. A pupil of the archaeologist Hyacinthe Langlois, then of the sculptor David d'Angers, he exhibited at the Salon from 1844, firstly landscapes, then historical subjects, always imbued with his love of Normandy. A fervent admirer of Nicolas Poussin, in 1860 he won the competition for the best local history painting organized by the Rouen Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts. Frédéric Legrip died on December 2, 1871, a few months after being appointed professor at the Ecole Municipale de Dessin in Paris. His paintings can be found in several French museums, including the Musée des Beaux-arts in Rouen and Bordeaux, the Musée de l'Armée in Paris and the Musée du Château de Versailles.

Bibliography : Frédéric Henriet, Un Peintre rouennais, Frédéric Legrip, sa vie et ses ouvrages, (Extrait du journal le Nouvelliste de Rouen du lundi 16 septembre 1872), Rouen, Lapierre, 1872.

Ref. X-1905-b