Charles Landelle

Darbouka

Zacharie Charles Landelle^[1] (2 June 1821 – 13 October 1908) was a French painter who specialized in portraits. He is best known for his Orientalist works.

Biography

He was born in

Old Masters at the Louvre

. He began by painting portraits largely as a means of supporting himself.

These were a great success and he had his first exhibit at the

Legion of Honor in 1855.^[2]

In 1857, he married Alice Letronne (1832–1882), daughter of the archaeologist Jean-Antoine Letronne who had served as Garde Général of the Archives Nationales and helped save them during the February Revolution. They had two sons who both predeceased their father.

In 1859, he received a major commission from the Emperor to decorate the salon of the

Four Elements

plus Peace and War. He was very prolific overall, producing somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 works, counting duplicates. One painting was redone in twenty-three different versions.

After voyages to North Africa and the Middle East in 1860, he produced a number of Orientalist works. He also visited Morocco in 1866, but went as part of an official delegation rather than as a painter. In 1875, he went to Egypt and sailed the

Auguste-Édouard Mariette. Every year after, he made painting trips to Algeria. He became known as the peintre des fellahs (painter of fellahs

).

He later began a campaign to create an art museum in Laval, which he inaugurated in 1895, along with President Félix Faure. Today, it is known as the Musée des Sciences [fr].

He died in

Musée des beaux-arts de Rouen

.