Jean Antoine Théodore Gudin (15 August 1802 – 11 April 1880) was a French painter who specialised in marine art and served as a court painter to Louis Philippe I and Napoleon III. Along with Louis-Philippe Crépin, he became one of the first two official Peintres de la Marine in 1830.
Life
Gudin was born in Paris. Nothing is known of his father and, in his memoirs, he seems to suggest that his mother was a widow who took full responsibility for raising him and his older brother, Jean-Louis (1799–1823). He was enrolled at a naval school, but quit his studies to go to New York, where he mingled with the Bonapartists in exile. In 1819, he joined the United States Navy and sailed aboard the Manchester Packet, a 250-ton brig.
In 1822, he returned to Paris and, inspired by his brother (who had become a student of Horace Vernet) he decided to pursue a career in art and found a position in the studios of Anne-Louis Girodet. He made his debut at the Salon that same year. The following year, he and his brother were involved in a shipwreck on the Seine, from which he escaped. His brother drowned, however, and this affected him deeply for the rest of his life.
In 1824, he had another exhibition at the Salon of 1824 and won the support of future King Louis Philippe I with a painting of the ship that had taken him on a visit to America. In 1828, King Charles X commissioned him to paint a depiction of Ensign Hippolyte Bisson who, the year before, had blown up his ship rather than surrender it to pirates. Shortly after, Gudin went with his friend, French Navy officer Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars, to participate in the Algerian Expedition, where he made numerous sketches.
Upon his return, he was named a "Peintre de la Marine" at the court of Louis Philippe. Over the next few years, he made painting trips to Italy, Switzerland and Russia. He was then created a Baron by the King and commissioned to produce ninety paintings on French naval history for the Palace of Versailles, a monumental task that apparently undermined his health.
He was named an officer in the Legion of Honor in 1841. Following an exhibit in Berlin in 1845, he received the cross Pour le Mérite. In 1844, he married Louise Margaret Hay (1820–1890), daughter of the British General James Hay (1788–1862) and goddaughter of the King. They had three children, including the painter Henriette Gudin.