Lot 3: * Ferdinand Joseph Gueldry (French, 1858-1945) The boat race

Ferdinand Joseph Gueldry (French, 1858-1945)
The boat race
signed 'F Gueldry' (lower right)
oil on canvas
51.5 x 65cm (20 1/4 x 25 9/16in).

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 (1824-1904). He first exhibited at the 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. The rowers depicted here in blue and white shirts are probably members of his club, shown in a tight race with several other crews, as the crowd rushes along the bank shouting encouragement and the various flags of the different teams flutter in the breeze.

By the end of the nineteenth 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 as the bourgeoisie enjoyed themselves on the banks of the Seine and the Marne.