Artist : Antoine ROUX (1765-1835)
Title : Sailors
Medium : Watercolor on classic paper
Type of work : Original painting by the artist
Dimensions : 15 x 10 cm
Condition : Good, a few spots
Provenance : This work was part of an album certainly belonging to Théodore Gudin (see photo). The invoice engages the responsibility of the gallery as to the authenticity of the work.
Expert commentary and biography : Originally from Marseille, Ange-Joseph Antoine Roux descended from a dynasty of marine painters and hydrographers (his father was the king's hydrographer and marine painter). It was in the family shop, drawing the many buildings of the port of Marseille, that he was introduced to drawing and the different techniques of oil, gouache and watercolor in which he excelled. A lover of re-enactments of naval battles, it was in 1789 that his success really began. Considered the inventor of the "ship portrait", French and foreign captains do not hesitate to make a detour to the old Port of Marseille to ask for a "portrait" of their ship. What made him famous was the originality of his compositions representing the same ship but sailing at two different paces. The ship is then painted in close-up with a relief and a "pre-photographic" reality then taken up more generally in the background. To capture these fleeting moments of ships in full action, nothing better than watercolor medium that does not allow repentance. What also makes its success is the delicacy and precision of its line which gives the ships and the characters an incredible realism thus plunging us with pleasure into the maritime universe of the beginning of the 19th century. The artist also likes to represent nature and the scarabs offered by the gallery also show the talent and the great mastery that the artist has of color, especially in watercolor. No wonder then that the painter of the Navy Théodore Gudin was able to collect the watercolors of the artist. Roux will continue to paint until his death in 1835, when he is carried away by the cholera epidemic. He leaves behind him an important legacy and four of his children will take up the torch and will also distinguish themselves in ship portraits.
This description has been drawn up by us following our expertise and the various reference works on the artist in our possession, any copy or resumption is therefore prohibited.
