Alexandre Brun (1853-1941) Frégate, Marseille. Marine, Sailboat,bracquemond, Cabanel, Monticelli

Superb new oil on canvas by Alexandre Brun depicting a frigate at sea, signed lower left, with "Marseille" inscribed on the back. The canvas measures 65x81cm (excluding the frame) and 86x102cm (including the frame). In very good original condition, with only three or four minor scratches. Available in a lovely modern frame or unframed for €980. Guaranteed authentic. This is a new work by Alexandre Brun, a new discovery as he is a painter I greatly admire and whose work I have exhibited several times at the gallery. This time, a frigate in rough seas near the coast, hence the inscription "Marseille" on the back, though I am not familiar enough with Marseille to confirm this attribution. Alongside the frigate, other vessels can be seen, including a small trimaran with a brown sail, and in the distance, the coastline and what appears to be a fairly large city. As is his custom, Brun pays particular attention to his composition: first, the sea; then the sailboat under sail, sublimely realistic; and finally, a vast, immaculate sky in shades of blue with yellow/orange highlights. In short, a work of very high quality by one of the best French marine painters. Even if it is perhaps not his most famous, his reputation is international, and he has achieved very impressive results at auction, including several sales exceeding €3,000, some over €10,000, and even a record of €27,953 on May 24, 2017, at Sotheby's New York, USA. Alexandre Jean-Baptiste Brun (Marseille, November 3, 1853 – Marseille, November 5, 1941) was a French painter, a student of Alexandre Cabanel, Carolus-Duran, and Felix Bracquemond. He is known for his numerous marine paintings and a collection of watercolors on dark washes depicting orchids. Alexandre Jean-Baptiste Brun was born in Marseille on November 3, 1853. As a young man, he studied painting in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts under masters such as Alexandre Cabanel, Carolus-Duran, and Felix Bracquemond. He painted notably with Adolphe Monticelli, Louis Tinayre, and Henri Pinta. After a first marriage that quickly left him widowed, he married Lucile Dutheil on May 4, 1886, in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. They had three daughters and a son. A marine painter, he created numerous illustrations for encyclopedias and books about the sea published by Larousse. An accomplished yachtsman, he accompanied Prince Albert I of Monaco on some of his oceanographic expeditions. The prince invited him to collaborate on the frescoes for the Grand Amphitheater of the Oceanographic Institute of Paris, whose construction he financed. Alexandre Brun also executed commissions for Baroness Nathaniel de Rothschild, Barons Arthur and Edmond de Rothschild, and close friends, such as Louis Libreck, for whom he created perhaps his most famous work: a series of watercolors immortalizing his friend's orchid collection. A prolific painter, he produced numerous family portraits, landscapes (banks of the Seine, the Normandy coast, the port of La Joliette, the calanques of Marseille), as well as still lifes. A member of the Salon des Artistes Français from 1877, he sent his works there almost every year until 1934. He exhibited in London at the Royal Academy in 1881 and 1882, as well as at the 1889 Universal Exhibition, where he received the bronze medal in the marine section, before taking a break to travel in various regions of France and Algeria. He suspended his activities again in 1914, resuming them at the end of the war and continuing until 1934, when he retired to Malmousque, to his villa "L'Ouragan," exhibiting thereafter only at the Jouvène Gallery in Marseille. He died in Marseille on November 5, 1941.