Professor Negre

Overview

Marie's drawing and painting master at Nice in spring 1875: the diary calls him «Nègre, le professeur du lycée». He is very probably Charles Nègre (1820–1880), the painter and pioneer photographer, born in Grasse, who settled in Nice in 1863 and taught drawing at the Lycée impérial there (Cleveland Museum of Art; visualartsdb.com; en.wikipedia «Charles Nègre») (confidence 0.85). The Mon Journal t.4 index reads «Nègre (professeur de dessin), 335» and t.5 «Nègre, professeur, 11». He is not the coachman Negre of t.10.

Relevance to Marie

On 10 March 1875 Marie hesitates over the teacher: Marie Sapogenikoff's own master has brought a well-painted head, «car on dit que Nègre, le professeur du lycée, est très bon aussi» (030.0172). On 6 April she writes: «J'ai commencé hier les leçons de dessin et peinture avec le professeur Nègre» (031.0082). The paragraphs do not say how long the lessons lasted.

References in Diary

• 1875-03-10 (030.0172); 1875-04-06 (031.0082)

Sources

Cleveland Museum of Art, open-access record 1992.11 (https://openaccess-api.clevelandart.org/api/collectiononline/metadata/1992.11); VisualArtsDB (https://www.visualartsdb.com/artist/charles-negre); Mon Journal t.4–5 indexes.