Ernest Lessieux 1848/1925 Villefranche Sur Mer Harbor Of Menton

Ernest Lessieux 1848/1925 beautiful and large watercolor of villefranche sur mer the harbor of menton Ernest Lessieux is a French painter, watercolourist and draftsman, born in La Rochelle on August 3, 1848, and died in Menton on January 4, 1925. Until 1862 , Ernest Louis Lessieux was a pupil of the municipal school of Nantes1, the city where he worked from 1863 in the studio of a painter-decorator. In 1865, he entered the National School of Fine Arts in Paris, where he was a pupil of Maxime Lalanne and Luc-Olivier MersonNote 1. After volunteering for the armies in 1870 in the war against Prussia, Ernest Lessieux returned in 1871 to his native department, to Rochefort-sur-Mer where, based at no. 78 rue des Fonderies2, he was a drawing teacher in high school and appointed curator of the museum. He marries Victorine Virginie Boisramé. His son Louis Ernest was born in 1874: he would later be his pupil and collaborator in the illustration of the postcards of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique3, then his companion on tireless hikes in search of picturesque sites, but also a precursor of photography. in color4.5. In 1884-1886, Ernest Lessieux spent a long time in Menton for health reasons6. He moved to Menton in 1897, residing in a house decorated with frescoes by the Menton artist Guillaume Cerutti-Maori (1866-1955), rue de la Marne, while having his studio in the Burkhard house. Like Alexis Mossa, who gave drawing and painting lessons in Nice in 1872 to a wealthy clientele, many of whom came from England, Ernest Lessieux also gained notoriety and financial wealth by teaching pictorial art in Menton, particularly within the English colony. In this way, he acquired “La Cotinière”, his property on the Île d'Oléron where, in addition to several trips to Italy, Spain and Morocco, he would return on regular visits6. Died on January 4, 1925, Ernest Lessieux is buried in the Trabuquet cemetery in Menton. On February 4, 1925, Louis Ernest Lessieux inaugurated a tribute exhibition in Menton devoted to the work of his father.