French, 1835-1895
Born circa 1860, this painter is a bit enigmatic. We think that he is of the same family, but older than he, as the animal sculptor Roger Godchaux, born in Vendome in 1878, who was a student of Jean Leaon Gerome and of Jules Adler. The painter, in any case, was known amongst the old Bordeaux antique dealers around 1900. He sold his canvases in the public sqares. The favorite themes of Godchaux were port scenes, the cliffs on the Normandy coastline, isolated Atlantic beaches occasionally animated with fishermen or boats, and mountainous landscapes certainly painted at the locations in the Pyrenees and Savoy Mountains. His skies are tumultuous, his figures in fisherman costumes or turn of the century peasants, indicate a sure and steady hand. The texture of his works is beautiful, generous and dense, the drawing robust, his compositions firmly structured. He signed his paintings in two different manners; one classic with large and very visible drawing, the other finely handled . This has made certain collectors believe that there are two different painters, when there is actually only one.
