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Early Life, Family and Training

Leon Pomarede was born around 1807 in Tarbes, France. He was the son of Jacques Pomarede and Hortense Abadie. His early years were shaped by a formal artistic education that spanned much of Europe. He likely studied in Paris, Germany, and Italy, gathering the technical skills that would define his later career as a painter. These years of training provided the foundation for a life spent working with oils, frescoes, and various decorative mediums.

Around 1830, Leon Pomarede left Europe and arrived in the United States. This move marked the beginning of his long residency in America, where he would live until his death in 1892. He brought with him the European traditions of his training, applying them to the changing landscapes and social scenes of his new home. His presence in the American art scene was marked by a versatility that allowed him to move between large-scale murals and smaller, more intimate works.

Activity in New Orleans

After arriving in the United States, Pomarede settled in New Orleans. He spent his time there studying the craft of painting under Antoine Mondelli and Louis Dominique Grandjean Develle. These years were spent absorbing the technicalities of the medium in a city that was still finding its footing. During this period, his life became intertwined with his teacher's through marriage to Pauline Clementine Mondelli.

The work in New Orleans was often collaborative. He joined forces with Mondelli to decorate the Ursuline convent, applying his skills to the walls of the religious space. By 1837, he had moved away from the shadow of his mentors to establish his own studio. This period of his life was defined by the practicalities of decorating rooms with oil and fresco, a skill he had been advertising since 1832.

Work in St. Louis and Commissions

Upon arriving in St. Louis in 1832, Pomarede immediately began working on the city's religious spaces. He was tasked with creating oil paintings, frescoes, and transparent window paintings for the Old Cathedral. During this period, he also produced a view of the town from the banks of the Mississippi River, capturing the landscape as it appeared in 1832.

His presence in the city led to further ecclesiastical work. In 1834, he received a commission to decorate the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France. This period of his life was marked by a steady stream of requests for murals intended for various public buildings throughout St. Louis. He spent much of his time on scaffolding, applying color to the walls of the growing city.

By 1845, his work moved into the interior of the Third Presbyterian Church, where he created murals for the space. His hands were often occupied with the practicalities of large-scale decoration, moving between the quiet of a studio and the active construction sites of local churches and public halls.

The Mississippi River Panorama

In 1843, Pomarede entered into a business partnership with Thomas Edgeworth Courtenay to develop a large-scale panorama of the Mississippi. The project was an immense undertaking, involving the depiction of sequential towns along the river and scenes from the St. Louis fire of 1849. During the development of this work, he received artistic support from Charles Wimar, who would later find his own success as a painter. The resulting work, titled "Pomarede's Original Panorama of the Mississippi River and Indian Life," was a massive production that captured the movement of the river and the lives of the people along its banks.

The panorama began touring in 1849, moving through several major cities. It was exhibited in St. Louis, New Orleans, Mobile, New York City, and Newark, New Jersey. People traveled to see the unfolding scenes of the American landscape and the river's activity. The tour was cut short when the work was destroyed by fire in Newark, New Jersey, in November 1850.

Religious and Genre Works

Throughout his long career, Pomarede moved between the grand scale of public murals and the quiet intimacy of smaller subjects. He spent much of his time producing religious, genre, and landscape paintings. His hands were often occupied with the delicate work of miniature paintings and portraits, alongside the heavy labor of creating decorative murals for the walls of churches, hotels, and public buildings.

In 1841, he completed a specific commission for St. Patrick’s Church, which consisted of three religious paintings. These works required a focus on biblical narrative, including depictions of the Transfiguration of Christ and Christ Walking on the Sea of Galilee. He worked alongside others to finish these pieces, including assistance with the ceiling work for the altar paintings.

• Transfiguration of Christ
• Christ Walking on the Sea of Galilee
• St. Patrick Baptizing the Daughters of the King of Ireland

Later Years and Death

After the fire in Newark destroyed his panorama, Pomarede returned to St. Louis. He had first arrived in the city in 1843, and this final period of his life saw him settled there for fifty years. He continued to work within the city, focusing his efforts on religious and genre paintings, as well as murals for hotels, theaters, and public buildings. His hands remained busy with the practical demands of decorative painting and church interiors.

His life came to an end in 1892 in St. Louis, Missouri. The cause was a fall from a scaffold while he was working in a church in Hannibal, Missouri. He died from the consequences of that accident at the age of about 85.