An accomplished French artist painter of landscapes, landscapes with figures, harbour scenes, seascapes, flowers., Alfred Godchaux was born 24 January 1839 and received his formal art training at the École des Beaux Arts, student of Gustave Courbet and Régis François Gignoux. On completion of his studies he travelled extensively through Europe spending months studying at the museums in Spain and Italy. On his return to Paris in 1860 he started showing his work at the Paris Salon, for which he was to receive much praise.

Of his exhibited paintings, many were very beautiful Venetian scenes. He left Paris in 1875 and settled in Pau, opening a workshop on Rue Henri IV. The surrounding coastline being so beautiful, Alfred Godchaux found an abundance of subject matter for which there was an appreciative clientele. Instead of exhibiting at the Paris Salon he now exhibited at the Beaux Arts de Pau and records at the museum des Beaux Arts in Pau show that he exhibited paintings entitled Paysage Pyrénéen and La Promenade de Montauban a Luchon.

Alfred Godchaux died 3 May 1907 in Reims, aged 68 years old.