32. Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps
(1803-1860)

Les Mendiants

(click on image to print)
Decamps, Les Mendiants

Les Mendiants

Original drawing in brown wash on wove paper, signed with initials, ca. 1833, 203 x 152 mm., see Mosby 2. This is apparently one of several studies for a painting which, if it still exists, was last reported to be in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Algiers. Mosby mentions that no details are available on the painting. There is a lithograph that reproduces the painting but shows certain differences with the drawing. Though born in Paris and spending most of his life around there, Decamps travelled in the Near East and much of his work is based on Eastern themes and on the scenery, which he used, quite effectively, in his paintings of biblical subjects.