Frederick Arthur Bridgman

Expatriate Frederick Arthur Bridgman’s position as one of the finest 19th century Orientalists on either side of the Atlantic is certain producing a remarkable number of pictures in his lifetime, traveling extensively and keeping company with some of the most well-known artists of the era. Born in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1847, Bridgmans’s father was a practicing physician who died when Frederick was only three. By his early teens the Bridgman family relocated to Boston where Frederick soon began to apprentice at the American Banknote Company. He excelled as an engraver as he took classes in drawing and design at night. He first exhibited a painting at the Brooklyn Art Association in 1865.