Ernest Lessieux (1848-1925) Rustic House In Oléron La Cotinière. Charente Menton La Rochelle

Large and superb watercolor by Ernest Lessieux representing a rustic house in La Cotinière on the island of Oléron circa 1900/1910, signed lower right + marked on the back "Maison rustique Oléron + La Cotinière" Format of the watercolor alone without frame 49x27cm and For the record this watercolor was presented for sale under the title "Maison en Ré" but I had it unframed in order to have it cleaned because it had some small traces of oxidation and I was thus able to see the inscriptions on the back. Furthermore, I am not certain that Ernest Lessieux painted on the island of Ré...As usual, Lessieux perfectly mastered watercolor, his favorite technique, the one thanks to which he would achieve his success and notoriety, just like his son a few years later (I also offer 2 other watercolors by his son Louis)Ernest Lessieux will have two regions of heart where he will live and will therefore paint the majority of his work, the island of Oléron and Menton.Ernest Lessieux is a French painter, watercolorist 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 student at the municipal school of Nantes city where he worked from 1863 in the studio of a painter-decorator. In 1865, he entered the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris, where he was a student of Maxime Lalanne and Luc-Olivier Merson. After volunteering for the army in 1870 in the war against Prussia, Ernest Lessieux returned in 1871 to his native department, Rochefort-sur-Mer, where, settled at no. 78 rue des Fonderies, he was a drawing teacher at the high school and appointed curator of the museum. He married Victorine Virginie Boisramé. His son Louis Ernest was born in 1874: he would later be his student and collaborator in illustrating the postcards of the Compagnie générale transatlantique, then his companion on tireless hikes in search of picturesque sites, but also a precursor of color 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 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 from 1872 to a wealthy clientele, a significant proportion of whom came from England, Ernest Lessieux also gained notoriety and financial comfort by teaching pictorial art in Menton, particularly within the English colony. He thus acquired in La Cotinière, his property on the Île d'Oléron where, in addition to several trips to Italy, Spain and Morocco, he returned on regular visits. Ernest Lessieux died on January 4, 1925, and is buried in the Trabuquet cemetery in Menton. On February 4, 1925, Louis Ernest Lessieux inaugurated a tribute exhibition in Menton dedicated to his father's work. This watercolor is therefore in good condition, I had it cleaned to remove some oxidation pitting, so today it is almost undetectable. It is delivered in its period frame, also in good condition for its 120 years. Work guaranteed authentic