Ange-Joseph Antoine Roux (1765-1839)

The PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN Seldom does a sale of Maritime Pictures include so many representative works of two contrasting dynasties of marine artists as the Roux family of Marseilles and the Walters family of Liverpool (see Lots 535 - 538). Renowned for their exquisitely detailed watercolours, the Roux family practised their art through several generations in an ancient port established at the natural confluence of time hallowed trade routes After the American Revolution, the remarkable expansion of the United States merchant fleet led not only to strong trade links between the New World and Liverpool (resulting incidentally in Liverpool becoming the chief cotton emporium for the United Kingdom) but also to the former colonies trading directly with continental ports including, of course, Marseilles. Consequently most of today's maritime collections in the United States almost always include a rich variety of pictures by members of the Roux or Walters family, the delicate watercolours complementing the glowing oil paintings. Of the two dynasties the Walters reached its peak slightly later, Samuel Walters (1811-1882) by chance has the same dates as Francois, the son of the most prestigious member of the Roux family, Joseph Ange Antoine Roux (1765-1835). Jointly the divers talents of the two dynasties cover every aspect of the heyday of maritime trade, as seen in these examples from a private collection assembled over a period of some thirty years. The Roux Dynasty Ange Joseph Antoine Roux (1765-1835) or Antoine Roux (pere) Arguably the most successful of all, he was the father and master of Mathieu Antoine, Frederic and Francois Geoffroi. His work remained superior in quality and was the inspiration to a whole following of aspiring French and Italian marine watercolour painters. Mathieu-Antoine Roux (1799-1872) or Antoine Roux (fils) As the eldest son daily exposure to business at the hydrographic shop (for the Roux family's trade was fundamentaly that of hydrography and cartography) as well as work always in progress on some new ship picture, naturally inclined him to follow in the paternal footsteps. His work is often confused with that of his father's. Francois Joseph Frederic Roux (1805-1870) or Frederic Roux By 1822, at the age of seventeen, he was already painting for profit in his father's studio having developed a style that would have been the envy of many an older practitioner. He became an apprentice to Horace Vernet in the 'atelier Vernet' in Paris at a young age and was soon to embrace great success both within the French court and elsewhere, so much so that he decided in 1835 to move to Le Havre where he became a hydrographer and "painter of marines". His watercolours of Le Havre are admired particularly for their high quality and within his own lifetime he was to receive international acclaim. Francois Geoffroi Roux (1811-1882) or Francois Roux The youngest of Antoine Roux's sons, Francois was nominated "Peintre officiel de la Marine" in 1876. Working, as he did, for most of his life in the family workshop in Marseilles, his work is similar but, if anything, finished in even greater detail. To say that Francois ultimately came to surpass his father's work would be unfair, but his effortless handling of pigment, maturity of style and incomparable degree of skill give his watercolours a surety of hand capable of executing even the most ambitious works. There are examples by all members of the Roux family in museums worldwide, including The Peabody Museum of Salem, Le Musee de la Marine, Paris and Le Musee de la Marine, Marseille. Their dynasty was to influence a whole school of maritime painters and their bold, colourful, throbbing images of ships so technically fine in every way, speak for themselves.

細節

Ange-Joseph Antoine Roux (1765-1839)
The forty-four gun Tunisian frigate Husseynie departing for Tunis for service with the Bey's navy
signed, inscribed and indistinctly dated 'Ante Roux à Marseille 1823?'
pencil, pen, black ink and watercolour
22 x 33½in. (56 x 85cm.)

出版

拍品專文

The Peabody Musuem, Salem, Massachusetts has another version of the Husseynie, see Pages 288 and 291 (No. 1182) in Marine Paintings and Drawings in the Peabody Museum by M.V. and Dorothy Brewington, published in 1981
The same watercolour is also referred to in The Artful Roux, Marine Painters of Marseille by Philip Chadwick Foster Smith, published by the Peabody Museum of Salem in 1978, Pages 24 and 25 (No. 37)

The notes in the latter catalogue about the ship read 'A forty-four-gun frigate of 1,039 tons, built at Marseilles by Messrs. Jouvin Brothers, launched 7 September 1821, departed for Tunis, 4 January 1822 - sails made by Antoine Mathieu Clastrier, Sailmaker'