Charles Joseph Frederick Soulacroix (French painter) 1825 - 1879
Soulacroix was born in Montpellier on 6th July, 1825. He began his studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1845 where he was a pupil of Ramney, Cornelius and Dumont. The artist made his debut at the Paris Salon in 1849. Soulacroix excelled in painting figurative subjects in the sumptuous interiors of the fashionable salons of Paris. The artist pays particular attention to detail in his paintings, depicting elegant furniture with fine silk and satin fabrics on the dresses and walls. He was very popular during his lifetime and continues to be regarded as the master of this genre today. Source: Burlington * * * Frédéric Soulacroix (French-Italian artist) 1858 - 1933 Frédéric Soulacroix was the son of the well known painter and sculptor Charles Joseph Frederick Soulacroix (1825 - 1899) and of Giacinta Diofebo, Frederic Soulacroix lived until spring 1863 in Rome and later in Boulogne-sur-Mer (where his father Charles was painting the frescoes of the local cathedral), in Paris and, since 1870, in Italy in Florence. In 1873, at 15, Frederic enters the “Accademia di Belle Arti” of Florence and in Octobre 1876 he is admitted to the “Scuola di Pittura”. Frédéric is very often confused with his father Charles. Frédéric’s signature is however unmistakable: his works are always signed F.Soulacroix - generally in red - whilst Charles always signed C. or Ch.or Charles Soulacroix. Whilst Frédéric had a vast production of paintings, his father Charles had a very limited one having started as a sculptor who soon passed to frescos painting (e.g. those in the Cathedral of Boulogne-sur-Mer, France) after having suffered a painful eye illness provoked by marble dust.
