Odilon Roche (1868 - 1947) Beautiful Signed Animated Beach Scene (c1930)

Odilon Roche (1868 - 1947)
Beautiful Signed Animated Beach Scene (c1930)

Odilon Roche, born October 3, 1868 in Châteauneuf-sur-Loire and died August 27, 1947 in Six-Fours (Var). He was a watercolorist, wash painter, and nude artist.

Here is a very beautiful beach scene signed lower left, made in the 1930s (probably the Côte d'Azur near Sanary where he lived).

Dimensions excluding frame: 46 x 30 centimeters Dimensions including frame: 64 x 48 centimeters

Around 1900, he opened an artist's supply shop in Paris, frequented by Renoir, Maurice Denis, Pissarro, Zuloaga, and Steinlen.
In 1905, he opened a second store, where he was one of the first to show Chinese antiques, which Anatole France, the gastronome Curnonsky, and the Guitrys came to see. The store was luxurious, and Honegger, Sauguet, Auric, and Casadesus gave their first concerts there.
He also had the clientele of Colette and Coco Chanel. In 1917, on behalf of his friend, Mr. Benedit, Rodin's executor, he had the chance to participate in the ordering of the posthumous work.
For about ten years, he worked on this classification, and it is likely that his exclusive admiration for Rodin dated from there and that he had plenty of time to absorb the rather simple technique of washes and watercolors, as well as the style.
His own works were totally marked by it. He went to settle in Six-Fours, above Sanary, where he painted most of his work, devoted to seaside scenes, which he would capture from nature from beach to beach, not going unnoticed, a colorful old man with a white beard, dressed in oriental style with a sari and a turban.
The work, more pleasant than major, of this unusual character was only discovered in 1971, and gave rise to a large-scale exhumation operation. It must be admitted that the character alone deserved it, especially since he himself never thought of drawing glory or profit from it.