Eugène Deshayes (1862-1939) - The Wave, 1896

Eugène Deshayes (1862-1939)
The wave, 1896
Oil on panel
32 x 24 cm
(42.5 x 34.5) cm with frame
Signed and dated lower right

Eugène François DESHAYES was a French Orientalist painter.
Eugène DESHAYES was born in Algiers in 1862. As a child, he was often ill and bedridden. He asked for a slate and a pencil, and drew from morning to night. At the Lycée d'Alger, he distinguished himself in the drawing class. Still very young, he lost his parents and was raised by his brother, then a young doctor at the Douera hospital. He entered the Algiers School of Fine Arts, directed by Emile-Charles Labbé, a landscape painter from the Barbizon school.

In 1882, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Beaux Arts in Paris. He trained in the studio of the painter Gérôme, and regularly visited the Louvre, where he made copies. In direct contact with nature, he painted Versailles, the Parc Monceau and even sold his "Paysage de neige à Clamart" to the famous art dealer Durand-Ruel.

On his return to Algiers in 1890, the press was immediately sympathetic. At the Dru gallery, he exhibited paintings of the Paris region and the Algiers area. He also took part every year in the Salon des Artistes français in Paris.

A lover of nature and the play of light, he studied Mediterranean flora and fauna. Sometimes, he even paints from a workshop boat, the sea and its variations at all hours of the day. He loves the hustle and bustle of harbors, ships and paddlewheelers.

As he travels through southern Algeria, he also follows caravans across the vast Sahara. He set up his easel all over the region: Ouargla, Biskra, Batna, Timgad... and also travelled through Morocco, southern Oranais, Tunisia...

In 1900, he painted one of the fourteen decorative panels for the Algerian Pavilion at the Universal Exhibition. Sallès, Chataud, Muller, Noailly, Sintès, Antony, Reynaud and his friend Bertrand share the others. He received numerous awards: the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur cross in 1935, a gold medal for his participation in the 1937 International Exhibition. He died in 1939.

Ref: URNOS18WI4