Gaston ROULLET (1847-1925). - Lot 84

Gaston ROULLET (1847-1925). Official painter to the navy in Annam and Tonkin. Doors to the Pagoda of Torture on the Little Lake in Hanoi. Pen drawing on framed paper, signed Tonkin 1XX5 lower right and located lower left. Dimensions: 14x22.5 cm (view). On August 20, 1885, Gaston Roullet embarked in Toulon as a painter for the French Navy aboard the Shamrock. Destination: Annam. During this voyage, he began writing his journal Impressions de voyage d'un artiste en Annam et au Tonkin, which he illustrated with numerous pen-and-ink and watercolor sketches. Most of them bear the same IXX notation, the probable page numbering of the travel journal. The motif of the little pagoda is repeated in a small panorama in oil on wood panel, reproduced in the exhibition catalog Du Fleuve Rouge au Mékong, Musée Cernuschi, pages 20-21.