Louis LOTTIER (1807–1892) - View of Cairo, Egypt

Louis Jean LOTTIER
(La Haye-du-Puits, 1807 – Mont-Saint-Père, 1892)

View of Cairo, Egypt

Oil on panel of strong cardboard
Annotated on the back: Offered by L. Lottier / to Mr. Ch. Ginoux / 1852 / View of Cairo
22.5 x 28 cm without frame
30.5 x 36.5 cm with frame
c. 1846-47

The only son of Louis Lottier, a glazier, and Rosalie Delalande, a merchant, Louis Lottier was born on the Cotentin Peninsula in La Haye-du-Puits on November 19, 1807. His modest background did not prevent him from joining the civil service at the age of sixteen, where he began his career while devoting his leisure time to painting small landscapes and seascapes. While untethered at the time, his small canvases caught the attention of Gudin, who recognized in them an artist on the rise. Thus, in order to develop his natural talents, Gudin had him embarked in 1839 at the expense of the State as a painter on the frigate "Belle-Poule" commanded by the Prince de Joinville, which allowed him, by traveling the coasts of the Mediterranean, to create a specialty in painting and to become a distinguished orientalist. Having then abandoned his job at the Ponts-et-Chaussées to devote himself exclusively to painting seascapes and landscapes, he made several trips to the Levant and the South of France. He made his debut at the Paris Salon in 1839, with a "View of Caen" and a seascape entitled "Sunset". After leaving the "Belle-Poule", he was entrusted with an artistic mission to Egypt in 1846-1847, from where he returned with several paintings and numerous studies painted on site. Our painting is most likely one of them... Based on these studies, he regularly exhibited his paintings at the Paris Salon until 1888, including one in 1850 entitled "View of the City of Cairo." It is highly likely that our oil on cardboard is a preparatory sketch. He was subsequently awarded a third-class naval medal in 1852. He also sent various works to provincial salons such as Lyon, Rouen, and Marseille. Louis Lottier retired in the last years of his life to Mont-Saint-Père in the Aisne department, where he died on August 9, 1892, at the age of 84.

Museums: Rouen, Le Havre, Avignon, Perpignan, Le Mans, Chaumont (View of Cairo), Châteauroux, Paris (Petit-Palais), etc.

The back mentions the donation by Louis Lottier of his study to Mr. Ch. Ginoux in 1852. It is in fact the Toulon painter Charles Ginoux (Toulon 1817 – Toulon, 1900) who was a student of Vincent Courdouan (1810-1893) for painting as well as Henri de Triqueti (1803-1874) for sculpture. A student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Ginoux exhibited both paintings and sculptures at the Salon from 1844 to 1869, for which he received several awards. He was also a drawing teacher in his hometown, where he died on January 10, 1900.