A to Z of artists de Dreux, Alfred 1810 - 1860

Born in Paris on 23^rd May, son of the architect, Pierre-Anne De Dreux (1788 – 1849).  His uncle, Pierre-Joseph De Dreux-Dorcy (1789 – 1874), a painter, was an intimate friend of Theodore Gericault and frequently took young Alfred to Gericault’s studio.  De Dreux studied with Léon Cogniet during the 1820s, but his early style was more influenced by the work of Stubbs, Morland, Constable and Landseer.  He had his first exhibition in 1831 in Paris and won immediate fame with Interior d’Ecurie.  From 1840 De Dreux began his celebrated series of portraits of horses from the stables of the duc d’Orleans.  De Dreux was a frequent visitor to England, particularly when the Emperor Napoleon III and his sons were exiled here after the Revolution in 1848.  He returned to France and painted an equestrian portrait of Napoleon III in 1859 (Musée de l’Armée, Paris).  De Dreux was killed in a duel with Comte Fleury, Napoleon’s principal aide-de-camp over this painting in March 1860 in Paris.  He worked in oil and watercolour and lithographed some of his work himself, including a portrait of Queen Victoria riding in Windsor Park.

Based on The Dictionary of British Equestrian Artists by Sally Mitchell (1985), published by the Antique Collectors’ Club.