Emile Godchaux

Born circa 1860, this painter is a bit enigmatic. We think that he is of the same family, but older, as the animal sculptor Roger Godchaux, born in Vendome in 1878, who was a student of Jean Leon Gerome and of Jules Adler.

This painter, in any case, was known amongst the old Bordeaux antique dealers around 1900. He sold his canvases in the public squares.

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 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 work 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 handed. This has made certain collectors believe that there are two different painters, when there is actually only one.