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Eugène Flandin | |
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| Born | Jean-Baptiste Eugène Napoléon Flandin (1809-08-15)15 August 1809 |
| Died | 29 September 1889(1889-09-29) (aged 80) |
| Nationality | French |
Jean-Baptiste Eugène Napoléon Flandin (15 August 1809 inNaples – 29 September 1889 inTours), Frenchorientalist, painter,archaeologist, and politician. Flandin's archeological drawings and some of his military paintings are valued more highly by museum authorities than his purely artistic paintings. He is most renowned for his famous drawings and paintings ofIranian monuments, landscapes, and social life made during his travels with the architectPascal Coste between 1839 and 1841. Flandin's observations onIran and international politics in the mid-19th century also continue to provide important documentary information.
In 1839, Flandin was, along with Coste, made a laureate of theInstitut de France, and they both joined the embassy of theComte de Sercey [fr] to Iran (1839–41). After parting from de Sercey's mission, they leftIsfahan (31 May 1841) with very limited financial means and retinue. They pursued their periplus towardsHamadān,Kangāvar,Bīsotūn,Ḥolwān, etc. They went back to Isfahan and then on toShiraz and thePersian Gulf (Būšehr), returning toTehran via Shiraz, Isfahan, andKashan. They then traveled toTabrīz, where disastrous sanitary conditions hampered their return throughTrabzon orTiflis so that they had to take the Tabrīz-Baghdad route throughKurdistan instead. Flandin's courage during this journey was praised by Coste, who also noted his intrepidity and his violent temper (Notes I, pp. 162 f., 367 f.). Their timetable and work were strictly organized. After Flandin's return to France, he was awarded theLégion d’honneur.
In March 1843, after fruitless searching for the site ofNineveh,Paul-Émile Botta (1802–70) discovered theAssyrian capital ofDur Sharrukin on the site of modernKhorsabad. Botta mistook the place for the actual site of Nineveh (Assyro-Babyloniancuneiform had not yet been deciphered). In October, Flandin was appointed to Botta's mission by theAcadémie des inscriptions et belles-lettres to draw the excavated remains and inscriptions. He also participated in the excavations which ended in October 1844.
Despite its many predecessors, Flandin'sVoyage en Perse remains a model of its kind and an important source, particularly on earlyQajar Iran, due to both its text and its illustrations. It provides many precious observations on history, archeology, arts, architecture, geography, social and court life, royal and provincial administration, military organization, etc. Itineraries are carefully noted. A table of distances between clearly identified stages is given in “time necessary at the ordinary pace of a horse”.[1]
Endowed with many gifts and professional skills (classical, military, and Orientalist painting; archeological drawing; writing and reporting; military and civil administration), Flandin provides us with very precious observations, accounts, and pictures. There is hardly any illustrated book on Iran, particularly one dealing with the Qajar era, without reproductions of his celebrated paintings of monuments, bazaars, personages and costumes, street scenes, landscapes, etc. All this work, supplemented with precise written observations, was accomplished despite the many hardships endured by Coste and Flandin during their travels. However, Flandin's pioneering work in archeological drawing was, soon after his Oriental expeditions, superseded by the new art of photography.Daguerreotype andcalotype made it possible to prepare pictures, notably of archeological remains, quickly and precisely, although archeological drawing still remains an indispensable complement to research and publication.
Media related toEugène Flandin at Wikimedia Commons
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