Joseph Ferdinand Gueldry (1858-1945) Ghislaine And Her Friends

Joseph Ferdinand GUELDRY (1858-1945)Ghislaine and her friendsOil on canvasPainting dimensions: 50 x 73 cmSigned lower rightProvenance: - Private collection in Normandy.- Private collection in Belgium.Work in good condition, on its original canvas. Antique gilded wooden frame. Total dimensions with frame: 63 x 85 cmThis painting will be included in the catalogue raisonné currently being prepared by Mr. Patrick Coinet. Sold with invoice and certificate of authenticity. Shipping possible in France and internationally. Painter of historical scenes, animated compositions, water landscapes and seascapes, Ferdinand Gueldry has all the assets in hand: an innate talent for drawing and a golden youth which allows him to follow intensive courses at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he is a student of Gérôme, and above all, to devote himself to his favorite sport, rowing, which will become a recurring theme of inspiration in his work. A member of the Société Nautique de la Marne, on Île Fanac, he enjoyed depicting his teammates on the water, excelling at capturing all their nuances and reflections on canvas. He exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1878 to 1933. He was awarded a 3rd Class Medal in 1885 and a Silver Medal at the 1889 Universal Exhibition. He received a travel grant in 1900. In 1908, he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor. At the beginning of his career, he painted scenes of working-class life, factory and workshop interiors, illustrating the industrial revolution, as well as portraits and landscapes in Brittany and the South of France. He then devoted himself to painting landscapes of riverbanks, marshes and lakes, animated by boaters, rowing scenes and regattas. Boating was still very popular in the 1880s and 1890s. The Paris area was now accessible. Rowing and its fluidity, a new leisure activity of the late 19th century, was a theme already frequently found among Impressionist painters. Gueldry took it up with a greater attention to detail, particularly in the costumes of the boaters and their female partners. On the Seine or the Marne, peaceful men, wearing boaters, coexisting with or steering a small dinghy, and rowers, dressed in striped jerseys, with a confident and sporty appearance. An international rowing referee, he travelled several times to England, to the famous Henley regattas on the Thames, where he produced one of his masterpieces, "On the Thames", which he kept for the rest of his life. Ferdinand Gueldry was therefore a specialist in rowing and canoeing scenes: "The Lock", (1888, Saint-Denis Museum, Reims), "The Jump from the Dam", (1895, Joinville-le-Pont Town Hall), "At the Sources of Canoeing - On the Thames", (1896, Nogent-sur-Marne Museum), "The Canoeists", (Cahors Museum).