Antoine Roux

The “Commerce de Marseille” under construction in 1806

Ange-Joseph Antoine Roux (born 1765 in Marseille ; died 1835 there ) was a French marine painter .

Career

Two warships of the young US Navy in the Mediterranean

In contrast to his extensive work, little is known about his biography. His father, Joseph Roux, ran his own business in Marseille as a royal nautical chart draftsman in Coin-de-Reboul-Strasse, right on the quay at the port. He is said to have helped his father in the business at a very early age and showed a talent for drawing. He was just drawing the vehicles that could be seen in the port of Marseille. From around 1800, specific "portraits" (see captain's picture) of ships are known as drawings and watercolors. They are said to have been created at the request of the captains of the ships calling at Marseille. Even ships that shouldn't have called at Marseille made a detour to order a portrait. American ships in particular have been portrayed by him and therefore many works are scattered all over the world.

Since no biographies are known, no information from the Revolutionary Period and the Napoleonic Era is available. Although several sons followed in his footsteps, marital connections are unknown. His sons were Antoine the Younger (1799–1872), Frédéric (1805–1870) and François Geoffroy (1811–1882).

Antoine Roux died of cholera in his hometown in 1835 .

His work was quickly forgotten after the death of his last son. A small exhibition was organized in Marseille in 1882, but a collection or a museum, as publicly requested, did not materialize. The prices for works by the Roux are said to have been catastrophically low at antiquarians. Only after the end of the First World War began to develop in the USA greater interest in his begannvre and in 1939 the first exhibition was shown in the Penobscot Marine Museum . It was not until 1955 that an exhibition in Marseille showed works by all the marine painters of the Roux family. Since then, the Roux's work has been valued by museums and collectors. In Germany, the International Maritime Museum in Hamburg probably has the largest collection. This work was published in various catalogs as part of Art Maritim at the Hanseboot . Many sketchbooks from the period 1785 to 1830 by the elder Antoine Roux are known.

literature

• Jean Meissonnier: Sailing Ships in the Age of Romanticism. 19th century watercolors and drawings by Antoine Roux. Bielefeld, Berlin 1969
• François Bellec, Dirk Böndel : Shipping and art from France. Hamburg 1987

Web links

Commons : Antoine Roux  - Collection of Images