Ernest Gustave Girardot

{{Short description|French painter}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

File:Ernest Gustave Girardot02.jpg

File:Ernest Gustave Girardot00.jpg

Ernest Gustave Girardot (1840–1904) was born into a well-known artistic French family and worked as a genre and portrait painter throughout his life.{{Art UK bio|ref=1}} His portraits of Tennyson and Lady Lytton are held in high regard.{{Cite web |url=http://www.nicholasbagshawe.com/view-artwork.asp?id=96&categoryid=&periodid=2 |title=GIRARDOT, Ernest Gustave R.B.A. (1840 ? 1904) - Portrait of William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) |access-date=2014-03-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045356/http://www.nicholasbagshawe.com/view-artwork.asp?id=96&categoryid=&periodid=2 |archive-date=2016-03-04 |url-status=dead }}

Girardot exhibited between 1880 and 1904 at the Royal Academy in London, the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Royal Hibernian Academy, Royal Scottish Academy and Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. He became a member of the Society of British Artists in 1874.{{Cite web|url=http://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/correspondence/people/biog/?bid=Gira_EG&initial=G|title=The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler :: Biography}}

Girardot's home and workplace were at first in Notting Hill and later at 'The Studio', Upper Park Road, Haverstock Hill, London.{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/parisuniversalex00pari/parisuniversalex00pari_djvu.txt|title=Paris Universal Exposition of 1878 : Catalogue of the British fine art section|year=1878}} He was a friend and correspondent of James McNeill Whistler and many of their letters have survived.{{Cite web|url=http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/manuscripts/search/results_n.cfm?NID=8861&RID=&Y1=&Y2=|title = University of Glasgow - MyGlasgow - Archives & Special Collections - Manuscripts}}

Ernest Gustave Girardot had a son and daughter – the diminutive son, Etienne Girardot (1856–1939), who initially studied to become a painter, later became an acclaimed stage and screen actor.{{Cite web |url=http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Biography_Files/id_kixrn5.htm |title=GIRARDOT, Etienne |access-date=2014-03-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084304/http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Biography_Files/id_kixrn5.htm |archive-date=2016-03-04 |url-status=dead }}