Lot 8: Ferdinand Joseph Gueldry (French, 1858-1945) Launching the boat

Ferdinand Joseph Gueldry (French, 1858-1945) Launching the boat
Launching the boat
signed 'J.F Gueldry.' (lower right)
oil on canvas
50.5 x 65.5cm (19 7/8 x 25 13/16in).

Footnotes

• Ferdinand Joseph Gueldry was born in Paris in 1858. He enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1876 at the age of 18 where he was a pupil of Jean Léon Gérôme. He first exhibited at the Paris Salon two years later, and went on to win a silver medal at the Exposition Universelle in 1889, second class in 1890 and gold medal in 1900. The same year Gueldry was made Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur and last exhibited at the Salon in 1933.
  
  In his early career, Gueldry concentrated on depicting the lives of the factory workers and on images of the industrial revolution, as well as portraits, landscapes and battle scenes.
  
  A founder of the Société Nautique de Marne at Joinville-le-Pont and a keen rower, he set up his studio in Bry-sur-Marne, in the eastern suburbs of Paris about eight miles from the city centre, where he painted numerous scenes of rowing and regattas during the 1880s and 1890s.
  
  By the end of the 19th century the passion for boating both for pleasure and sport had increased dramatically. Gueldry, an artist with a keen sense of line and an innate understanding of colour, was able to capture this unique period in Parisian history.