A wonderful genre painting of a boy in an artist’s attic by Pierre Édouard Frère. The boy is depicted sat on a bench looking at sketchbook and other works on paper. Hanging behind him on the wall is an artist’s board, whilst to his right can be seen a number of canvasses on stretchers. Other sketch books are shown lying on the floor at the boy’s feet.

Pierre Édouard Frère was born in Paris on 10 January 1819 to Antoine Charles Frère and Marie Louise Therese Delormel . His father Antoine Charles Frere was a music publisher and his brother was the orientalist painter Charles-Théodore Frère (1814-1888). In 1836 at the age of 17, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts where he studied under Paul Delaroche (1787-1856). Whilst there, he developed an interest in Realism and went on to become one of the leading exponents of the “sympathetic art” movement in France, which sought to portray the lower classes with dignity and sympathy.

He began exhibiting at the Paris Salon in 1843 and over the years won several medals. By the time of his marriage to Gabrielle Susanne Bosquet on 5 May 1844 at Paris, he had established himself as a successful artist. Their son Charles Edouard Frere (1837-1894) also became a genre painter. In 1847, he moved his family to Ecouen in Seine et Oise, and from this point he began specialising in paintings of children. Although he did paint a series of Orientalist subjects after travelling to Egypt in 1860, his main output became his paintings of everyday people, usually children.

Frère became a well-known figure in Ecouen where he helped establish an artistic community and ran an art school. He also served as Mayor for a short time. From his base, he continued to exhibit at the Paris Salon and elsewhere, winning a third-class medal at the 1855 Exposition Universelle. In the same year, he was named Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in recognition of his service to the French nation. In 1868, he made his debut at the Royal Academy, exhibiting numerous paintings there until the year before his death. He died at Ecouen on 23 May, 1886.

Examples of his paintings can be found at the Atkinson Art Gallery, Dundee Art Gallery, Glasgow Museums, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Sudley House and the Wolverhampton Art Gallery.