Charles Bargue, “The Albanian Sentinel in Cairo”, Detail, 1877, Oil on Panel, 28 x 21 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Painter and lithographer Charles Bargue was born in France in 1826/1827. He was a student of academic painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme. Bargue worked closely with Gérôme and was influenced by his style, which included Orientalist scenes and historical genre. Bargue travelled extensively throughout North Africa, and the Balkans, where he executed many portraits with meticulous detail of the local people.
Bargue is mostly remembered for his 
“Cours de Dessin”, which was conceived in collaboration with Gérôme and became one of the most influential classical drawing courses. This comprehensive course was published between 1866 and 1871 by Goupil & Cie, a leading art dealership and printing company in Paris.
This course is used by many academies and ateliers which focus on classical Realism. Aided by one hundred ninety-seven lithographs, students were guided from plaster casts to the study of master drawings and finally to drawing from a living model. Among the artists whose work is based on the study of Bargue’s plate work are Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh, who copied the complete set in 1880 to 1881.
Charles Bargue died on April 6th in 1883 in France. His last painting “Bashi-Bazouks Playing Chess”, was completed by Jean-Léon Gérôme and is now conserved in the Malden Public Library in Malden, Massachusetts.