DECAMPS, ALEXANDRE-GABRIEL, a celebrated French painter, was b. at Paris in 1803. He was a pupil of 31. Abel de Pujol, the well-known historical painter, but he seems not to have been very amenable to tuition. He was one of those who cannot be made to imitate approved models, and he soon began to strike out a style of his own, which was new to the public, and was long in becoming popular. About 1830, he made a tour in the east, which had a considerable effect upon the character of his works. For several years after his return lie painted chiefly eastern subjects. Either the novelty of his subjects—eastern scenes and customs being then comparatively unfamil iar to Europeans—or the novelties of his manner, made the public hesitate in its verdict upon these works; while they were not unfrequently rejected by the jury at the academy of paintings. Gradually, however, they grew into favor; and the -prices fetched by these and the other works of D. show that he is now among the most esteemed of the artists of his time. He painted landscapes, genre-pieces, and historical pictures; but though lie has produced works in each of these kinds which are of the highest order of merit, his animal pictures are those which first attained to popularity among his coun trymen. D. had a great deal of humor; and lie loved to paint animals of all kinds. The monkey was his specialty; and a series of humorous pictures in which the monkey, or groups of monkeys, are introduced—now widely known by engravings or lithographs— were among his best and most popular works. In one of this series, Les Singes Erperts, he managed to convey a stinging criticism upon the judges at the academy who were so slow to admit his merit as an artist. Successful as he was in animal painting, D. was much chagrined by the preference shown by the public for his genre over his historical pieces—which, by English critics at least, are now considered among the finest produc tions of the French school. Of his landscapes, and even of his historical works, the majority are taken from eastern subjects. It was perhaps a consequence of the tardy
recognition given to him by critics and other authorities, that not more than one of his pictures is now in a public collection in France. His works are in private hands; but at the exposition universelle of 1855, sixty of them were brought' together, and an. opportunity was thus afforded of comparing them with the more accessible works of other contemporary painters. His pictures divided attention with those of Delacroix, and Vernet, and received the award of a medal. D. was made a chevalier of the legion of honor in 1839, and was promoted to the grade of officer in 1851. He died at Fontainebleau on the 22d of Aug., 1860, of injuries which he sustained by falling from his horse.
Humor, as has been indicated already, was one of the principal characteristics of D.'s most popular works. His really great—his historical—works were remarkable for the fineness, in many cases the grandness, of tile conceptions, and for a large and free style of treatment deemed over-daring and irregular by connoisseurs, but usually result ing, nevertheless, in a very impressive tout ensemble. Undoubtedly, his execution had considerable faults, but they were closely associated with its merits. His drawing was often careless, and when some favorite effect was to be produced, he never hesitated to set perspective at defiance. The boldness of his coloring, and the startling light-effects introduced in his pictures, were what critics at first found most fault with. These arc, however, the peculiarities of his manner, and now that they are no longer strange, they find not only apologists but admirers. If they were merits, they were of a kind which, in the hands of imitators, were very apt to degenerate into faults, and the French artists who have taken D. for their model, have,. by their exaggerations, done not a little to imperil the reputation of their master.