Lot 1252: Charles Giroux (French, b. 1828, active New Orleans 1868-85) "Women In the Cotton Fields, River and

Cotton Gin Beyond", oil on board, 10" x 5", signed lower right: "C. Giroux". Period giltwood frame. Provenance: Estate, Berryville, Virginia. Reference: Seibels, The Sunny South: The Life and Art of William Aiken Walker. — Limited biographical information is available about Giroux, however, this painting is another demonstration of the unique connection between the artist and his contemporary, William Aiken Walker (1839-1921). Some time after 1868, when Giroux began working in New Orleans, he is known to have resided occasionally at the Blanchard home on Magazine Street. During that time he served as an instructor to their daughter Blanche and likely became acquainted with Walker, who also had been engaged as her teacher. In the summer of 1883, Giroux and Walker exhibited paintings of black subjects at the Canal Street gallery of Samuel Blessings, as Cynthia Seibels notes in her book, The Sunny South, "..before going off on their summer journeys". John Fowler, author of the forthcoming Walker catalogue raisonné, has suggested this work may have been completed during one of those field trips. Giroux and Walker exhibited at Blessing’s again in the fall of 1885 and garnered positive reviews for their depictions of plantation hands during the cotton picking season. This painting reveals in small part, the inspiration of Walker upon Giroux, who was primarily a landscapist, and serves as an interesting illustration of their exchange of ideas and distinctive artistic styles.