Original works of art

The son of the the architect, Pierre-Anne Dedreux, Alfred was interested in animals from a young age. While encouraged to do history paintings by his early teacher, L. Cogniet, from about 1831 he specialised in painting horses, and to a less extent, dogs. He completed a series of portraits of horses from about 1840, including those of the Duc d'Orleans and many other luminaries of French equestrian society. A popular and stylish painter, de Dreux also travelled to England where he completed several important commissions, exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1850 and 1851.