Edmond-adolphe Rudaux (1840 - 1908) - The Painter's Break - Dated 1876.

Oil on mahogany panel signed and dated lower right.
Dimensions: 46 x 31.5 cm, with frame: 66 x 53 cm.

E.A Rudaux gives us here a charming gallant scene. In an undergrowth, a young peasant woman walks over a tree trunk suspended above a ru. Below, a young man in a canoe, who holds his cane as a standard, has come to have a good time at the water's edge; looks are exchanged and a conversation takes place. Is it a chance meeting or a date? The setting is bucolic, the trees and groves form a setting. We can recognize the painter in the face of the young man; his belongings, a country easel and drawing board remind us of this. We appreciate the detail of the clothes and the delicacy of the touch thanks to the artist's qualities as a designer.


painter Edmond-Adolphe Rudaux is a talented painter, illustrator and engraver. He is the father of the astronomer Lucien Rudaux and the painter Henri Edmond Rudaux. He specializes in genre scenes still highly sought after by a wealthy clientele under Napoleon III. He was first a pupil of the flower painter Victor Leclaire and Eugène Lavieille. He exhibited for the first time in Paris at the Salon in 1863. His scenes quickly became fashionable and were copied many times during his lifetime, in the form of engraving, typography, chromos and greeting cards. Around 1873, he moved with his family to Seine-Maritime. He discovers the beaches of Veules-les Roses. In the 1880s, he moved to Donville-les-Bains where he built a house called “Les Gerbettes”. He continued his work as a painter, drawing inspiration from the region around Granville. Illustrator of bibliophile works, he not only draws, he also engraves. Its production is estimated at more than 200 etchings published among others by Cadart and Conquet (Paris), including a remarkable sequel to New Tales in Ninon (1882) by Emile Zola. He died in July 1908, at his home in Donville-les-Bains.

Museums: France:. Granville Museum of Art and History. Donville-les -bains. . Gray, Baron-Martin museum,. Paris, National Library of France.
United States: . Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco. (Engravings)