Sunbathing, a moment of relaxation and feminine intimacy in a Mediterranean maritime landscape captured by the painter Ernest Rouart

Oil on canvas
Signed lower left
Dimensions: 38 55 cm x

The Rouart family, aristocrats with a passion for art whose destiny is closely linked to Impressionism.

These wealthy industrialists had a passion for art; they lived only for painting. Devoid of worldly ambition, they preferred the company of creators to that of their wealthy peers.

Ernest Rouart, the family's full-time painter

Ernest Rouart, Henri Rouart's fourth son, chose to devote himself exclusively to painting, thus contributing to the continuation of the family's artistic legacy. He gave up an industrial career to follow in the footsteps of his father and Degas, who introduced him to his art.

He developed a delicate impressionist style, capturing street snapshots, family portraits and scenes of everyday life as shown in our painting.

Biography

Ernest Rouart is a French impressionist painter and collector.
Growing up surrounded by a fabulous collection that painters and enlightened amateurs regularly came to admire undoubtedly had an impact on his destiny.

After studying mathematics, which aimed to introduce him to his father's business, Ernest turned to painting. He was helped in this by a close friend of the Rouarts: Edgar Degas, who gave him lessons and encouraged him to copy the Louvre masters. He had him experiment with the preparations used by the ancients like Mantegna.

It was Degas who introduced him to Julie Manet, daughter of Berthe Morisot and Eugène Manet. She would become his wife. The couple moved into a private mansion in the XVIe, From his marriage, they will have three children 

A collector like his father, Ernest acquired a number of works at the sale of Henri Rouart's collection around 1912 through the gallery owner Paul Durand-Ruel.

Ernest Rouart was instrumental in promoting Impressionism and worked to showcase Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, and Berthe Morisot through major exhibitions. He and his wife donated paintings by Berthe Morisot to the Louvre and paintings by Manet, which are now housed at the Musée d'Orsay.
He exhibited at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1899, at the Salon des Indépendants, and then at the Salon des Tuileries. He was a member of the committee of the Salon d'Automne, where he exhibited. In 1932, he organized the Manet Centenary exhibition at the Musée de l'Orangerie, the Degas exhibition in 1937, and the Berthe Morisot exhibition in 1941.
Rouart died at his Paris home on February 27, 1942. He is buried in the Passy cemetery in Paris, next to his wife Julie Manet.

Bibliography

• Dominique Bona, with texts by Léon-Paul Fargue, David Haziot, MediaWiki: Badtitletext, Paul Valéry, Frédéric Vitoux and Charles Villeneuve de Janti, Les Rouart, from Impressionism to Magic Realism, Gallimard editions, Paris, 2014.

• Sophie Monneret, Impressionism and its era: Proper names A to T, vol. 2, t. 1, Paris, Robert Laffont, 1987

Museums

Paris

• Orsay Museum

• Marmottan Museum

source

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Rouart
https://www.telerama.fr/scenes/les-rouart-le-virus-de-la-peinture-de-pere-en-fils,122605.php