Charles Leduc (1831 - 1911)

Charles Leduc was born into a family of Nantes merchants. He began his working life, after an unremarkable education, as a clerk for an uncle who ran a fertiliser business in Nantes. After throwing an inkwell at his uncle's head, the latter threw him out and he embarked on the first ship to leave. He became a long-distance sailor for eight years, including four years of military service. This first-rate experience gave him a perfect command of his subjects when he started drawing.

At the end of his military service, he became a pupil of Charles Leroux in Paris, a former pupil of Corot, and then set up his studio in Nantes, at number 30 rue de la Fosse with his brother Alfred Leduc, also a painter and pupil of Henri Lehmann. Charles Leduc was also a pupil of the painter François-Louis Français.

It was in Nantes that he painted portraits of merchant ships, at the request of shipowners, in the spirit of the "Pierhead painters", the painters who worked in the largest commercial ports in America and Europe in the 19th century. He also depicts pleasure ships. An eclectic artist, in addition to being a sailor and a painter, he also worked as a mechanic, a cabinetmaker, a model maker and a naval architect. He was also the correspondent for the newspaper Le Yacht, since its foundation, as well as for Le Monde Illustré.

He signed his works with an anchor, the prerogative of official naval painters.