DEHODENCQ, Alfred (Paris, 1822 – Paris, 1882)
Dehodencq started his artistic training in Paris at Léon Cogniet’s academy (1794–1880). From an early age he displayed an enthusiasm for exotic landscapes and undertook several trips to Algeria. He profoundly admired the Romanticism of Géricault and Delacroix and first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1844, submitting Dante and Saint Cecilia. At the 1846 Salon, Dehodencq won third medal for a Portrait and Saint Stephen led to his Martyrdom. In 1849, he travelled to Spain from Bareges where he convalesced from a bullet wound. In Madrid he was deeply moved by his discovery of Spanish Golden Age painting, particularly the works of Velázquez in the Museo del Prado. On this trip he painted Bull-fight with Young Bulls at the Escorial (Pau, Musée des Beaux-Arts), his first work on a Spanish subject which he presented at the Exhibition of the San Fernando Academy in 1850 and the Paris Salon that same year.
In the course of his stay in Madrid, Dehodencq met the Duke of Montpensier, who became a patron and protector. The artist moved to Seville in November of 1850 where he painted some of his best work for the Duke—notable among which are the two canvases now in the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. From Spain, Dehodencq sent Gypsies Returning from a Fiesta in Andalusia (Musée de Chaumont) to the Paris Salon where it would be awarded another third place medal in 1853.
In 1857 Dehodencq married a woman from Cadiz, returning to France 1863 where his Spanish works did not meet with his earlier success, although he won a first prize medal at the Salon of 1863 for A Jewish Festivity in Morocco and Fortune-telling, Andalusian Gypsies. He received the title of Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1870.
Although mainly a painter of social customs and popular types, Dehodencq was also a well-known portrait painter and author of numerous canvases and watercolours of exotic subjects which he painted during his trips to Morocco. These works are characterised by the exotic aspect of his figures as well as by the brilliant sensuality and the warmth of colour that he had learned from Delacroix.
His son, Edmond Dehodencq (1860–1887) also became a painter.
José Luis Díez
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