Highly informative and masterly painted picture off coast scenery was done by acknowledged French master Ferdinand Perrot (1808-1841), also the name of the artist is written as: Ferdinand Victor Perrot, Ferdinand V. Perrot, Ferdinand F. Pierrot. "English merchant ships and clippers off Saint Vaast la Hougue", the red flag of the brig-schooner in the center resembles the "Red Ensign" or "Red Duster", English merchant ships of the 19th century. The three-mast, just behind in the background, is a clipper. Original N/T (Belot rue de l'arbre sec Paris) SBD and dated 1831- Expert cabinet TURQUIN. Signed oil painting on canvas, with nice framed.
Size app.: 33 x 46 cm (roughly 13 x 18.1 in) and nice frame ca  55 x 68 cm (roughly 21.7 x 26.8 in). In very good restored condition, craquelure, age wear. Please study good resolution images for overall cosmetic condition. In person actual painting may appear darker or brighter than in our pictures, strictly depending on sufficient light in your environment. Weight of app. 3 kg is going to measure some 5 kg volume weight packed for shipment.
Born in Paimbeuf on April 28, 1808, he spent his childhood in Brest, department of Finistère, and was then in Paris the pupil of Théodore Gudin, the first official painter of the French Navy, hence his love for seascapes. From his many travels: Brittany, Normandy, northern France, then England and the south and finally Italy in 1837, he brought back many paintings, lithographs, and a multitude of charming sketches and drawings on the theme of the navy. This gave him the opportunity to exhibit in many places, and in particular at the 1833 salon. In early 1840, he received an invitation from Tsar Nicholas I to come to Saint Petersburg for important work. Before leaving for Russia, he decided to get rid of 116 of his paintings and some engravings and lithographs during an sale which took place on the 27th and April 28, 1840 at 16 rue des Fasteurs in Paris (list available at the BNF). After his admission to the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg on September 29, 1840, he was commissioned, among other things, for series of lithographs of views of the city. He was very well received: he was assigned apartments in each of the imperial family's summer residences, Peterhof and Tsarkoye Selo. Unfortunately, he did not take advantage of his stay... Indeed, in 1841, the September 28, after a year of intense lithographic production, he probably died of intestinal tuberculosis, a sequel to cholera caught in Brest a few years earlier. He was buried in Saint Petersburg. Many of his works were destroyed during the fire in Brest in 1944.