Fernand lungren a biography wikipedia

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Fernand Lungren (–) was an American painter and illustrator.

Painter and illustrator Fernand Lungren is best known for vibrantly colored images of the scenic wonders of the American Southwest. Lungren was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, but grew up in Toledo, Ohio. In , he abandoned his studies in mining engineering at the University of Michigan and went to Cincinnati. There, painters Alfred Laurens Brennan — and Robert Blum — encouraged Lungren to pursue art training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia under renowned realist painter and teacher Thomas Eakins.

Lungren remained at the academy only briefly, however, before moving to New York City with Blum to work as an illustrator. Lungren returned to America in and settled in Cincinnati to teach and work, exhibiting his oil and watercolor paintings widely. In , under the patronage of the Santa Fe Railroad, he made the first of several annual visits to the Southwest, where he studied the rituals of the native inhabitants as well as the distinctive landscape of the region for paintings and illustrations.

The year after his marriage in , Lungren moved to London with his wife. During their three-year stay, Lungren became adept at the use of pastel, a chalk-like colored drawing medium, exhibiting the results with success.

This is a faithful photographic reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art.

He also made a seven-month tour of Egypt, but many of the pastels and sketches that resulted were lost when his baggage was ransacked on the return journey. The Lungrens arrived back in the United States in After living in New Jersey for one year, they moved permanently to California, taking up residence in Los Angeles and, beginning in , in Santa Barbara.

The artist made repeated tours of the Southwest, collecting material for paintings as well as illustrations for published stories and accounts of travels and Native American life. He also painted murals for displays at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, to which he donated his extensive collection of Indian artifacts.