Fromentin, Eugène (Eugène-Samuel-Auguste Fromentin) (1820-76). French writer. Though professionally a painter, he is famous for his one novel, Dominique, which has strongly autobiographical elements. In his youth he had a (probably reciprocated) passion for Jenny Chessé, a married woman three and a half years older than himself, who died of cancer in 1844. After her death Fromentin wrote fascinating journals on his travels in the African deserts, and devoted himself with great official success to painting in the orientalist style, but still regarded himself as a writer manqué. 15 years later the editor of La Revue des deux mondes ‘ordered’ a novel from him. The result was Dominique, first published in the review in 1862. In paying homage to his love-affair, Fromentin transforms it into a classic of romantic frustration. He died too early to witness the great popular success of his novel, republished three months after his death.
Fromentin is also remembered for his illuminating essays on Dutch and Flemish painting, published in 1876 as Les Maîtres d'autrefois.
[Graham Dunstan Martin]
