Code: 6066
Dimensions:
A fine large signed and dated 1882 portrait of a gentleman with a cigar, by French artist Ernest Constant Simon.
Superb quality depiction of the gentleman wearing a dark suit, crisp white shirt and a silk scarf tied in a bow. The dapper look is completed with wire brim glasses and a cigar held nonchalantly in his left hand.
The work is signed and dated lower right and presented in a fine gilt frame.
Artist: Ernest Constant Simon (French, 1848-1895)
Title: Gentleman with a Cigar
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 31 x 27 inches (78.5 x 68.5 cm) including the frame
Ernest Constant Simon was born on April 25, 1848, in the former 12th arrondissement of Paris, from the marriage of Jean Marie Simon, mégissier, and Thérèse Sophie Niquet.
He entered as an apprentice in a lithography printing press and, after a meeting with the painter Roger de Beauffort, became pontifical zouave and went to Italy. After the fall of Rome in 1870, he returned to France in the auxiliary army and was demobilized in August 1871.
In 1871, aged 23, he decided to become a landscape painter and attended the course of Armand Cassagne, the studio of Émile Dardoize and the studio of Alexandre Cabanel. He painted and drew outdoors in Paris, Normandy and Brittany.
On 7 December 1874, he married Jeanne Louise Dardoize, daughter of Émile Dardoize, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. They had 7 children, including Jacques Simon, who became a painter.
In 1880, he exhibited, at the Salon des artistes français, 2 landscape watercolors. He also participated in the Salons of 1881 and 1882.
Also in 1880, he bought a house in Carolles in the Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, one of his favorite sites. He also painted in Nice and Italy with Charles Toché, Italy where he often and particularly returned to Venice.
From 1886 he left for Algeria, and his works designated him as Orientalist.
During his last 9 years, he made 2 major trips a year, and traveled through Sweden, Holland, Martinique, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt. He spent the winter in Paris or in the summer in Carolles, and trained students.
In 1894, he and his son Jacques were domiciled at n°4 rue Coëtlogon in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.
In 1895, the gallery owner Georges Petit exhibited 52 of his orientalist watercolors.
Returning to Egypt, he died on 26 April 1895 in Cairo.
In 1995, an exhibition was devoted to him in Paris. The cities of Granville, Guingamp and Vitré, as well as the Regional Council of Martinique, preserve his works.
