Olivier Bro de Comères

This selection of watercolours and sketches of landscapes, architecture, and decorative arts, comes from an album of watercolours by Olivier Bro de Comères (1813-1870), a French soldier and artist stationed in Algiers between 1833 and 1840. Olivier Bro de Comères was raised in an artistic district of Paris known as Nouvelle Athènes, where his neighbours and mentors included Théodore Géricault and Horace Vernet.

This collection documents elements of both military and civilian life during the French occupation of Algeria. The artist demonstrates great sensitivity in his portrayals of women and children from various communities and ranks within Algerian society. His keen eye for detail when illustrating fashions and decorative and architectural features is apparent throughout, as is his palpable delight in painting dashing characters such as the mercenary soldier Sidi Galfallah (see The Art of War). The sheets presented here are also remarkable for the often-extensive annotations in Olivier’s hand on the verso of many of the sheets, undoubtedly added to help him finish his sketches in detail. 

Amongst these paintings are sheets depicting the artist's home in rue des Lotophages, Algiers. The third painting shows a view of Olivier Bro’s room, emphasizing his dual identity as both a soldier and an artist. Above the door frame, his rifles are prominently displayed, while several swords and sabres adorn the side wall. Arranged above his desk are palettes, a stack of albums, and an artist’s mannequin of a horse resting on the desk itself—hinting at Olivier’s method for capturing various equine poses in his paintings. The room’s decoration includes a Berber kilim rug, a large cupboard with a painted and glazed North African-style pitcher on top, and another terracotta pitcher of a similar style placed on a shelf above the entrance to the room. An intriguing watercolour, inset within a panel in the upper part of the cupboard, catches the eye as it reproduces one of Olivier’s works: a view of Algiers from the roof of General Bro’s house, completed by the artist in May 1838. 
Other paintings depict the local architecture. A series of architectural studies of the Ketchaoua Mosque is particularly fascinating, as this building was converted into a Roman Catholic cathedral by the French, and eventually demolished in 1845. This highlights the importance of the collection in documenting Algerian life in a pre-photography age.