Fabius Brest Turkey Constantinople Trabzon

Fabius BREST (Marseille, 1823–1900)
Fortified gate in Trebizond (now Trabzon), Turkey
Oil on canvas on its original stretcher35.5 x 27.5 cm
Signed in red in the lower left corner
In very good condition
In its original wooden frame with gilded stucco1860–1880
Provenance: A family of printers from Bordeaux in the 19th century
Related work: Fabius Brest, Fortified Gate in Trebizond, charcoal on paper, 18 x 15 cm. Aguttes, March 25, 2021. (illustration
“If you want to know Constantinople, ask Mr. Brest. He lived there for several years. He crossed the Bosphorus as we cross the Seine, and rides through Asia Minor as we do in Montmorency.”Léon Lagrange (art critic during the Second Empire)
Fabius Brest belonged to the group of Provençal painters who were students of Émile Loubon and turned to Orientalism. But unlike his compatriots, who were drawn to Egypt or Algeria, it was Constantinople and the Bosphorus that became his chosen home. After honing his landscape painting skills in his native region, Brest decided in 1855, at the age of thirty-two, to travel to Turkey. He arrived there in 1855 after a stopover in Italy, stayed for three years, and left after a brief visit in the summer of 1858 to Trabzon, a port on the Black Sea. From then on, he became a specialist in views of the Ottoman Empire. The paintings he presented at the Paris Salon, such as *Place de l’At-Meïdan in Constantinople* (1861), earned him great success and glowing reviews from renowned art critics such as Jules Castagnary and Théophile Gautier. For three decades, Fabius Brest exhibited numerous paintings of genuine topographical and ethnographic value at various salons, inspired by the paintings and drawings he created from life during his travels. As a mark of recognition, the government purchased several of his works. Originating from a former Bordeaux collection, our painting is documented by a drawing likely dating from Fabius Brest’s visit to Trebizond in 1858. The painting is characteristic of the artist, reflecting his interest in local architecture—depicted with precision—as well as the free and lively brushwork with which he paints the figures animating the scene. The novelist Edmond About said of him: “Mr. Brest’s painting is not as polished and deliberate as that of (Jean-Léon) Gérôme, but it possesses infinite grace, spontaneity, and sincerity.”