Ernest Lessieux (1848 - 1925) The Sea In Calm Weather, Signed Watercolor

Ernest Lessieux (1848 - 1925) 
The sea in calm weather, 
signed lower left
watercolor on paper
16.5 x 24 cm
Framed : 35 x 41 cm

This rather atypical work is a remarkable addition to Ernest Lessieux's oeuvre, and is also strikingly modern. The rendering of the calm, serene sea and the summer sky is executed with great mastery of watercolour. The result is both subtle and serene.

Ernest Lessieux (1848-1925) was born in La Rochelle in 1848. Although he initially trained at the École municipale de Nantes, in 1865 he entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied under Maxime Lalanne and Luc-Olivier Merson. After volunteering for the army in the war against Prussia in 1870, Ernest Lessieux returned in 1871 to his native department, Rochefort-sur-Mer, where he taught drawing at the lycée and was appointed curator of the museum. He married Victorine Virginie Boisramé. His son Louis Ernest was born in 1874: he would later become his pupil and collaborator in the illustration of postcards for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, then his companion on tireless walks in search of picturesque sites, as well as a precursor of colour photography.
In 1884-1886, Ernest Lessieux spent a long time in Menton for health reasons. He settled in Menton in 1897, living in a house decorated with frescoes by Menton artist Guillaume Cerutti-Maori (1866-1955), in the rue de la Marne, as well as having his studio in the Burkhard house. Following in the footsteps of Alexis Mossa, who had been giving drawing and painting lessons in Nice since 1872 to a wealthy clientele, many of whom came from England, Ernest Lessieux also gained fame and financial ease by teaching painting in Menton, particularly among the English colony. It was at this time that he produced his views of Menton and the Côte d'Azur, for which he is particularly well known. In this way, he acquired "La Cotinière", his property on the Ile d'Oléron, where, in addition to several trips to Italy, Spain and Morocco, he would return regularly.
Ernest Lessieux died on 4 January 1925 and is buried in the Trabuquet cemetery in Menton.