Biography

Swiss painter. He was taught first by his father, the painter and lithographer Samuel Frey (1785-1836). He studied in Paris in the early 1830s, and then in Munich (1834); thanks to the sponsorship of Emilie Lindner, a patron of the arts, he was able to move on to Rome where he specialized in landscape painting (Mountains in the Roman Campagna, Kunstmuseum, Basel)

At the end of the 1830s he moved to Naples, travelling to Sicily and to Spain. In 1842 he set out for Egypt with the Royal Prussian Expedition led by Richard Lepsius but had to return to Italy, settling finally in Rome.

Frey was very productive and his studio attracted many visitors. He had especially close links with the Prussian court, where his Italian landscapes found a ready market. He had considerable ability as a colourist, but there were some weaknesses in his draughtsmanship. The Kunstmuseum in Basel has a collection of his paintings.