Charles-Théodore Frère - Jerusalem from the Environs [c.1881]

Charles-Théodore Frère - Jerusalem from the Environs [c.1881], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Frère (French, Paris, 1814 - Paris, 1888) began his career painting French landscape scenes, but after a stay in Algeria in 1837, he exhibited only scenes and landscapes of North Africa and the Middle East. In 1861 he made his final visit to the eastern Mediterranean, travelling in the party of the Empress Eugénie. It is thought that Frère exhibited this painting at the Salon of 1881 as View of Jerusalem from the Valley of the Jehoshaphat. It was undoubtedly executed from an earlier study or a photograph. The meticulous style, similar to that of Gérôme, was based on the technique and paint handling of Ingres and his pupils.

[Oil on canvas, 74.9 x 110.5 cm]