Ernest Rouart

He began by studying mathematics; intending to enter his father's business but, like his father, he turned to painting, enlisting the aid of Edgar Degas, a family friend, who gave him lessons and advised him to copy paintings at the Louvre.

In 1912, he and his siblings decided to sell their late father's collection; which went for a considerable sum.

Shortly after the beginning of World War I, in 1914, he obtained permission to hold a sale of Degas' paintings.

His friend, then eighty years old, had fallen on hard times and needed assistance.

[1] After beginning his career as a painter, he held numerous exhibits; first at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1899.