Roger Jourdain

ROGER JOURDAIN (Louviers, France, 1845 - Paris, 1918).
"Boat ride on the Seine", 1889.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dedicated in the lower left corner. On the reverse: signed, titled "Le soir" (The Evening), numbered no. 2 and dated 1889.
We thank Olivier Tyrel de Poix, one of the heirs of the sculptor Pierre Tourgueneff, for all the information provided on the iconography and origin of this painting: "The painting "Le Soir" by R. Jourdain was part of the Roger Jourdain exhibition at Rueil Malmaison in 2016. The woman in front in the boat is Henriette Jourdain, wife of the artist. This painting belonged to the sculptor Pierre Tourgueneff since 1889. It always remained in his property of Vert Bois, in Rueil Malmaison, passing through four successions before being sold in 2021.
Pierre Tourgueneff, sculptor, was a very close friend and neighbor of Roger Jourdain, but also of his wife Henriette, who served him as a model for some of his works in bronze."
Measurements: 92 x 65.5 cm; 121.5 x 94 cm (frame).

This painting by Roger Jourdain plunges us into the "Belle Époque" and testifies to the sweetness of life on Sundays spent by the water, on the banks of the Seine. The painter captures the atmosphere of the place where many Parisians came to relax. The two elegant ladies in a boat (one of them Henriette Jourdain, the artist's wife) have stopped by the riverbank, in the shade and out of sight, for an intimate conversation. In the distance, another boat can be seen in which a man in a canotier and a woman, protected from the sun by a parasol, are strolling along the water. The mahogany color of the wood of the boat echoes the blond red hair of the elegant lady on her back. The black of her dress warms and contrasts with the gradient of blues and greens of the landscape.

The banks of the Seine and the Marne inspired the greatest Impressionist painters of the time, including Renoir, Monet, Sisley, Pissarro, Caillebotte and others.

Roger Jourdain entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he was a student of Alexandre Cabanel. He began his career at the Salon of 1869. From then on, he regularly exhibited landscapes and seascapes of Normandy, the banks of the Seine and even the Thames, in Cookham. He also painted genre scenes. The painter was also a politician and served as mayor of Rueil-Malmaison from 1900 to 1906. He is currently represented in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Louviers (thirteen paintings and fourteen landscape studies).