Henri Miloch (1898–1979) - Louis XIV At Sea, Approaching The Soleil Royal

Henri Miloch, painter of seascapes and Brittany, member of the Société des artistes français, born in Trieste on July 15, 1898, and died in Auray, Brittany, on July 4, 1979.

From a very young age, he showed a talent for drawing and painting, as well as for boatbuilding. A violinist in the Trieste Symphony Orchestra, he served as a captain in the army and fought on the Russian front from 1914 to 1918; he returned on foot. By then, he spoke five languages. He subsequently successfully completed his engineering studies at the Naval Aviation School in Genoa.

Having drawn and painted since his early youth, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, from which he graduated at the top of his class in 1930. Instantly captivated by Concarneau, he regularly exhibited his paintings in Paris both in the summer and winter. Beginning in 1959, he set up a studio in Tours, at 61 Rue Colbert, in the old town.

He often painted seascapes, Breton fishermen, and ships of the line, which he imagined drawing on the maritime knowledge he acquired during his youth, his studies, and his interactions with sailors: watercolors, gouaches, oils, and etchings. He also created numerous models.

The ships (galleons) he depicted as early as 1933 immediately bring to mind Hergé’s comic book *The Secret of the Unicorn*. Today, they continue to capture the attention of “Tintinophiles.”

It is, in fact, this ship—inspired by Hergé’s Unicorn as well as the Soleil Royal, the flagship of Louis XIV’s fleet, that Miloch presents to us in this composition—but in a larger, more theatrical format than his other works on the same theme, and above all in a calm and serene scene where the ships are not sailing, which is even rarer for this artist.