Excerpt from The Masters of Past Time, or Criticism on the Old Flemish Dutch Painters Eugène Fromentin was born in 1820 at La Rochelle. He studied landscape painting under Cabat, and at the age of twenty-two travelled in the East, which had great influence on both his paintings and writings. His first great picture was "Les Gorges de la Chiffa," which was followed by a number of paintings, all of Eastern subjects. Perhaps his three greatest works are the "Bivouac au lever du jour," the "Fauconnier arabe," and the "Bateleurs nègres." His pictures are notable for "their delightful colouring and harmony of tones." Among his writings are Un Ètè dans le Sahara Dominique, a novel (the only one he wrote), and Les Maîtres d'Autrefois, which is translated here. It was written almost at the end of his life, and shows him to be "an enlightened critic and a master of style." He died at his birthplace in 1876. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.