Identity:

Ernest Gustave Girardot was a domestic genre, figure and portrait painter.

Life:

Girardot was active in exhibiting between 1880 and 1904, showing at the Royal Academy in London, as well as at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Royal Hibernian Academy, Royal Scottish Academy and Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. He was elected a member of the Society of British Artists in 1874, a society which named JW its President in 1886.

Girardot, who makes frequent appearance in SBA records, was present at a meeting held by the Society on 5 September 1887 at which JW's Memorial to the Queen, which resulted in the Society receiving a Royal Charter, was shown (#01668). In 1888 Girardot declared himself to JW to be greatly annoyed at insinuations made in The Echo concerning a rival Presidency at the Royal Society of British Artists (#01669). Indeed, Girardot resigned in support of JW, when JW was forced to resign his Presidency of the RBA in November 1888 (#03506). In 1888 when Girardot wrote to congratulate JW on his marriage, he declared 'I hope, with all my heart that you are, and always will be one of the happiest of mortals' (#01670).

Girardot was amongst those proposed invitees to a dinner organised by W. C. Symons to congratulate JW on becoming an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Munich, a dinner which was to be held at the Criterion in Piccadilly on 1 May 1889 (#05635).

Bibliography:

Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, 8 vols, Paris, 1956-61; Johnson, J. and Anna Gruetzner, Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940, Woodbridge, 1980.